Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what guidance he has issued to NHS hospital, community and mental health trusts on (a) recognising and (b) managing the risk that prescribed insulin poses to patients with a dual diagnosis of Type 1 Diabetes and an eating disorder; and if he will make a statement.

NHS England and NHS Improvement’s ‘Adult Eating Disorders: Community, Inpatient and Intensive Day Patient Care – Guidance for commissioners and providers’, published in August 2019, guidance on managing comorbid conditions including diabetes. NHS England and NHS Improvement have developed two pilot services to test, trial and evaluate the effects of integrated diabetes and mental health pathways for the identification, assessment and treatment of patients with type 1 diabetes and disordered eating in London and the South. The draft evaluation for the pilots found that a means of increasing awareness among healthcare professionals of the risks for those who have type 1 diabetes and an eating disorder, should be developed to aid identification and diagnosis.