National survey launched to assess inpatient diabetes care across England
A national survey has been launched to assess the quality and safety of inpatient diabetes care and understand the impact of diabetes care on patients across NHS trusts in England.
The Getting It Right First Time (GIRFT) Diabetes Programme is undertaking the National GIRFT Inpatient Diabetes Bedside Survey, covering both acute and community inpatient settings.
The survey follows the GIRFT survey of inpatient diabetes service provision carried out in 2024, which highlighted a substantial increase in the number of hospital inpatients with diabetes since the 2019 National Diabetes Inpatient Audit (NaDIA), without a corresponding increase in workforce capacity.
Since then, pressures on inpatient diabetes services have continued to increase, with more patients being treated with newer glucose-lowering therapies and greater use of diabetes technologies, including continuous glucose monitoring systems, insulin pumps and automated insulin delivery devices.
The GIRFT Diabetes Programme says understanding the level of care being provided at the bedside, and the resulting patient outcomes, is essential to support service planning and identify opportunities for improvement.
The national bedside survey will collect patient-level information alongside a site-level questionnaire looking at diabetes service provision, staffing and governance arrangements.
The survey will aim to improve understanding of how diabetes medications are managed during hospital admission, the support available for glucose monitoring and insulin administration, the impact of inpatient diabetes care on patients, and variation in diabetes services and workforce capacity.
NHS trusts are being asked to complete the survey on one weekday between 12 and 25 October 2026.
The patient-level survey should include all adult inpatients with a diagnosis of diabetes on the chosen day, across acute and community inpatient settings. Maternity and mental health services are excluded.
Each trust site will also be asked to complete a questionnaire about its inpatient diabetes services, staffing and governance arrangements.
The survey will be conducted electronically using Microsoft Forms and is based on the electronic NaDIA methodology. Participating organisations will be able to review and analyse their own data once local data collection has been completed, while national analysis will allow organisations to benchmark their results against peers.
The findings will contribute to national improvement work aimed at enhancing the safety and quality of inpatient diabetes care, as well as supporting the development of a future electronic National Inpatient Diabetes Audit.
The GIRFT Diabetes Programme is encouraging diabetes teams across England to take part and help build a clearer picture of inpatient diabetes care nationally.
Trusts will need to nominate a local clinical lead and operational contact, complete the survey on their chosen day and return the completed patient dataset and trust questionnaire by 30 October 2026.
Find out more about the National GIRFT Inpatient Diabetes Bedside Survey and how your trust can participate here.