Endocrine Abstracts

Introduction: We sought to the impact of an out of hours telephone advice service for children and young people with diabetes mellitus on Emergency Department attendance rates.

Methods: In July 2014 we commenced a collaborative service for 240 patients with diabetes across two Paediatric diabetes centres- Croydon University Hospital (CUH) and St George’s University Hospital, London. Paediatric diabetes specialist nurses and consultants in Paediatric diabetes joined a shared rota. All patients, their families and hospital staff were given a single point of contact telephone number for their local Paediatric diabetes service. Outside of normal working hours (Monday-Friday, 9 am–5 pm) this phone number is diverted to the mobile phone of the member of staff on call. Each staff member is on call 1 week at at time and commits to giving immediate advice or returning a call within one hour. Data on ED attendance rates was only available for one centre (CUH).

Results: No adverse clinical incidents have been recorded in association with the service since it started. The mean number of Emergency department attendances at CUH for diabetes related complications (DKA, hypoglycaemia, unstable diabetes or intercurrent illness) between 2007 and 2013 was 43. This dropped in in each of the 3 years since commencing the telephone advice service to only 14 attendances in 2016.

Conclusions: We conclude that the out of hours telephone advice service is clinically safe and reduces the burden on Emergency Department attendances.