Caring for diabetes from childhood to the later years

At Guy’s and St Thomas’ and Evelina London Children’s Hospital, we care for people of all ages with diabetes from across our local boroughs.

There are currently over two million people with diabetes in the UK. There are up to another 850,000 people with diabetes who have the condition and don’t know it.

There are two types of diabetes, we provide care for both. Type 1 diabetes develops if the body is unable to produce insulin. This type of diabetes is inherited and usually appears before the age of 40. Type 1 diabetes is the least common of the two main types and accounts for 5-15% of all people with diabetes.

Type 2 diabetes develops when the body can still make some insulin, but not enough, or when the insulin that is produced does not work properly (known as insulin resistance). In most cases this is linked with being overweight. This type of diabetes usually appears in people over the age of 40, though in South Asian and African-Caribbean people often appears after the age of 25.

However, recently, more children are being diagnosed with the condition, some as young as seven. Type 2 diabetes is the most common of the two main types and accounts for 85-95% of all people with diabetes.

The Young Persons Diabetes Service at Evelina London Children’s Hospital supports children and young people with all aspects of the condition. The service offers a monthly clinic for screening and diabetes review for young people with diabetes. They also work closely with inpatient services to support children in the children's intensive care unit and children with diabetes and kidney disease.

As well as clinical care, the team provides diabetes education and fun activities, working closely with schools, families and other carers.

Our adult diabetes and endocrinology service at Guy’s and St Thomas’ cares not only for patients with diabetes, but also patients with a full range of endocrine and lipid disorders. As well as caring for inpatients with diabetes, we provides a number of outpatient clinics for patients with diabetes. This includes clinics for pregnant women with diabetes, foot clinics and eye clinics – as people with diabetes are at risk of foot ulcers and eye problems. 

Read more about our children and young people’s diabetes service and our adult diabetes and endocrinology service.