Are children receiving the recommended diabetes checks?

A study of just over 27,000 young people, and children, showed that only around 25% of people over the age of 12 received all 7 of the annual checks, such as eye exams. These missed checks have been deemed “very worrying” by Diabetes UK.

The National Institute for Health and Care Excellence produced guidelines which state that all children with diabetes should have their blood sugar levels checked every year, and those over the age of 12 should also have 6 other health checks. Included in these health checks are: growth measurement, blood pressure, kidney function, cholesterol checks, eye screening and foot examinations.

Out of the recommended checks the most commonly missed are cholesterol testing, eye screenings and foot examinations.

The purpose of these checks is to aid the spotting of diabetes causing harm to organs, which if spotted early enough be less severe.

A Consultant in Paediatric Endocrinology and Diabetes, Dr Justin Warner, is of the opinion that it is “completely unacceptable that some of these checks were being missed, or not recorded”. He goes so far as to say that “health staff should strive further to ensure all checks take place and are recorded, and commissioners should provide adequate resources”.

The Director of Policy and Care Improvement at Diabetes UK, Bridget Turner, confirmed that “there remains considerable variations in the levels of care provided. This is very worrying because if children and young people are not supported to manage their diabetes well in early life, they are more likely to be at risk of debilitating and life threatening complications in adult life, such as, amputations, blindness and the possibility of a stroke”.

From the study NHS England will now be working closely with clinical commissioning groups to improve the provision of effective integrated diabetes services.