Giving children with a certain medical condition tablets instead of liquid medicine could save the NHS tens of thousands of pounds per patient each year, experts have said.
Researchers found patients as young as seven were successfully able to switch to pills, and often preferred them to the taste of liquid medicine.
Experts from Great Ormond Street Hospital (Gosh) are now planning to assess whether patients as young as four can successfully switch to cheaper tablets.
Academics at the world-renowned children’s hospital wanted to examine the switch among patients with a condition called congenital hyperinsulinism (CHI), which affects one in every 30,000-40,000 children.
Jess Manktelow, 11, has been a Gosh patient since she was 15 months old Credit: handout/PA
Children with the condition, which leads to high levels of insulin in the body, are given a treatment called diazoxide to keep their blood sugar (glucose) levels stable.
They must take treatment multiple times a day depending on their insulin and glucose levels.
Until now children were given the treatment as a liquid, with liquid diazoxide coming with a price tag of £15.50 per 50mg.
In contrast – diazoxide in tablet form costs just £1.15 per 50mg.
Experts have estimated that switching from liquid to tablets could save the NHS £40,000 per patient per year.
Gosh experts conducted a project on 19 patients aged seven to 13 to see whether the switch was viable.
Jess Manktelow switched to diazoxide tablets in April 2025. Credit: handout/PA
Patients were monitored to ensure their blood glucose levels remained stable and asked about how the change in medication format had impacted them.
Jess Manktelow, who has CHI and has been a Gosh patient since she was 15 months old, was one of the children who took part in the project.
Her school and family life was organised around taking liquid diazoxide multiple times a day, which needs to be stored at room temperature in a glass bottle and drawn up with a syringe.
“I would always get a lot of questions about the medication when I would go away camping or at airport for holidays,” she said.
“It would always be hard to explain why I need it so much, but it isn’t always an easy condition to explain.”
The 11-year-old, from Kent, was switched to diazoxide tablets in April 2025.
Jess Manktelow has described how the switch has made ‘things very easy for me’ Credit: handout/PA
“It has made a big difference taking medicine that doesn’t taste horrible,” she added. “There were times where I didn’t want to take it because of the taste.
“It makes things very easy for me now, I’m able to do it myself and it doesn’t take up as much time at school or when I’m doing things I like, like climbing, it doesn’t have as much impact and that makes me happy.”
Her mother Steph Manktelow added: “We were so excited when the team told us we could switch to the diazoxide tablets.
“We’d been hoping for some time, we knew it was a better solution and would allow Jess to have control over her condition and that is very important.”
Kate Morgan, Gosh clinical nurse specialist who co-led the project, said: “We knew the potential this trial had for savings, but the scale of the quality-of-life improvements for children and their families we are seeing is something we didn’t anticipate.
“Children are so much more than their diagnoses – they have full lives and families and their illnesses affects everyone, so it is very important we do all we can to make simple, positive changes that impact everyone for the better.”
Project co-lead Dr Antonia Dastamani, consultant of paediatric endocrinology and diabetes at Gosh, added: “It is common practice to ask patients how they’re finding treatment, or how they feel when they have injections, but we never thought to ask patients about the taste of medicines and whether they like them.
“This has shed a light on key questions we now want to ask children and young people about their care and treatment so they can be more involved and have more independence in their lives.”
Reporting History sees journalists join News At Ten anchor Tom Bradby to revisit their remarkable on-the-day reports of the defining events of the modern age. Listen to the episodes below…