Pediatric diabetes care: inpatient care in the Maps of Health Needs of Poland in 2014

Health care provision for patients with diabetes mel­litus is a considerable challenge to health policy due to the increasing number of its new cases, both in adults and in children. In Poland, hospital care for children with diabetes mellitus is centralized and most services are provided by university and provincial hospitals. In spite of the above the structure of the services provided varies widely from province to province, both in terms of the number of hospitalizations per 100,000 children, net migration rate, length of hospital the stay, and percentage of hospitalizations for acute complications. It is necessary to improve the societal and medi­cal awareness regarding the signs and symptoms of diabetes in order to reduce the number of acute complications, including those at the time of diagno­sis. Furthermore, it is crucial to make every effort to provide equal access to specialist diabetes care, thus to make it consistent with the standards. The high number and differences in the numbers, duration of hospitalizations of children with diabetes require further monitoring at a coordinated system of pediatric care.