Letter: Delays in patients receiving insulin following discharge to the community

A problem has been identified in our area where community nurses served by several hospital trusts have been advised by their Director of Nursing Service not to use hospital discharge letter information to administer insulin at home. It must always be confirmed and written up on prescription chart and signed by a GP. This poses difficulties of initial administration of insulin, particularly on weekend or bank holiday discharge and often leads to the patient not receiving their medication at the appropriate time.

We would like to hear from other centres or trusts if they have encountered similar problems and how they may have resolved the issue. Has anybody developed a discharge protocol which covers such a dilemma?