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National Diabetes Inpatient Audit reveals slow increases in specialist staff numbers and use of electronic prescribing in 2018

NHS Digital have released the latest figures from the National Diabetes Inpatient Audit (NaDIA). The NaDIA measures the quality of diabetes care provided to people with diabetes while they are admitted to hospital whatever the cause, and aims to support quality improvement in England and Wales. The figures released for 2018 show that 90% of NHS organisations in receipt of transformation funding have used the money to recruit new staff. The number of Diabetes inpatient specialist nurses (DISNs) has increased by 19%, with diabetes consultants (up 14%), podiatrists (up 47%) and dietitians (up 87%) all increasing as well. However, 22% of participating hospitals still have no DISNs and the report expressed concern about access to diabetes specialist pharmacists on the NHS. The report also highlighted that the take-up of electronic prescribing and electronic patient records has slowly increased, but 65% of participating hospitals still do not fully utilise electronic prescribing technology