ABSTRACT
Red flags are factors that suggest a serious condition rather than a minor illness. A patient requiring urgent assessment in a hospital setting will encounter additional delay through attending A&E compared with a direct referral to a specialty by the assessing clinician, as well as incurring additional expense for the health system. Poorly controlled diabetes makes the patient immunosuppressed, but even if the diabetes is normally well controlled, infection may cause hyperglycaemia, which acutely impairs the immune response and risks tipping the patient into diabetic ketoacidosis. All patients with diabetes should have a care plan that tells them what to do if they are unwell. Any drug may have potential for multiple interactions, but the majority are not clinically significant. It should be remembered that the elimination of many drugs can be affected by renal or hepatic impairment.
