Our paediatric diabetes service at Hull has been praised for making improvements, which will benefit children and young people (CYP) receiving care.
In five years, the service at Hull Royal Infirmary has gone from being a negative outlier for the median HbA1c – a measure of average blood glucose levels in the previous three months – on the National Paediatric Diabetes Audit (NPDA), to a positive outlier with median HbA1C of 54 mmol/mol for 2024/25, which is lower than national and regional values.
Findings from the NPDA, which is an annual assessment of a unit’s performance compared to the region/country, show significant improvements in both outcomes and care processes for CYP with diabetes at Hull University Teaching Hospitals NHS Trust.
The National Institute for Health and Care Excellence recommends several health checks to be performed for children and young people with Type 1 diabetes, depending on their age. These include:
- HbA1c
- Height and weight (BMI)
- Thyroid function checks
- Blood pressure (12+)
- Urinary albumin: A check for healthy kidneys
- Foot exam.
The latest data shows Hull Royal Infirmary is among the top performing units with lower median HbA1c, and slightly higher rates of foot examinations and thyroid function checks compared with national mean. The hospital also performs in line with regional and national averages for completing all six key health checks, including BMI, blood pressure and HbA1c measurement coverage.
Dr Sanjay Gupta, Consultant Paediatrician in Diabetes and Endocrinology, said: “Our outcomes for 2024/25 were among the best in the country. We were praised for our improvement work, which was possible due to the team’s participation in a Quality Improvement initiative by the Royal College of Paediatrics and Child Health in 2020. In addition, the whole team participated in a year-long improvement journey in 2022/23, aimed at improving access to technology for CYP from economically-deprived backgrounds.
“Historically, there’s been challenges with children with deprived backgrounds accessing the advanced technology, but this is much more equitable now, with nearly 90% of CYP from the most-deprived backgrounds having access to insulin pumps.” A total of 304 children and young people with diabetes who received treatment at Hull Royal Infirmary were included in the 2024/25 audit, with 21 diagnosed within the audit year.