25% of patients in Melbourne public hospitals have diabetes

Professor Zimmet, who is also a director of Baker IDI Heart and Diabetes Institute, said diabetes is likely to be the leading cause and burden of disease in Australia within the next decade.
“We need hospital administrators to apply more resources to the care of people with diabetes in hospitals. There is no question that this is very important.”
The point prevalence survey, published in the Medical Journal of Australia, included 2308 adult inpatients. It determined the prevalence of diabetes in 11 Melbourne metropolitan hospitals, each on a single day between 10 Novber 2010 and 22 Novber 2012.
It found that 562 (24.7%) of inpatients had self-reported diabetes, and that was confirmed to be 98.7% accurate by cross-checking of medical records. Diabetes prevalence ranged from 15.7% to 35.1% in different hospitals.
The study authors called for a formal national inpatient diabetes audit to capture biochical data to determine the true prevalence of diabetes and its consequences.
“Such an audit would allow a comprehensive assessment of this high-risk group and permit rational planning to deal with shortcomings in their managent”, they concluded.
Professor Zimmet welcomed the concept of a national audit of inpatient diabetes, but warned that it would have to ensure that all cases were captured.
“It would have to be very well prepared to ensure that no one with diabetes escapes the audit and that hospitals are geared to be testing every person who potentially may have diabetes, even before they go into an operating theatre.”