A campaign to improve diabetes care in residential and nursing homes has been launched.
The Care Home Diabetes Audit 2012 is encouraging care home owners to take part in an England-wide survey to examine current diabetes procedures and practices.
The audit will seek to identify quality standards that can be picked up by the Care Quality Commission, and used for assessing the quality of diabetes care being delivered. Questionnaires are to be sent to care homes across the country.
Audit lead, Professor Alan Sinclair, director of the Institute of Diabetes for Older People (IDOP) and national clinical lead for diabetes in older people, said: 'The primary purposes of this audit are firstly, to ascertain what areas of diabetes care within residential settings can be further supported and secondly, to gain better insight into the difficulties of providing enhanced care.
'This audit has the potential to improve care for older people with diabetes living in care homes in England, and give insight on how to provide staff with the training and support that they need, as well as assisting managers and policymakers to allocate resources.'
The initiative is being led by the IDOP and the professional organisation for all medical diabetes specialists, the Association of British Clinical Diabetologists.
Some 27 per cent of care home residents are thought to have diabetes.