15.01.15
Poor diabetes care in England costing lives and money warns charity
The poor state of diabetes healthcare in England is leading to avoidable deaths, record rates of complications and huge costs to the NHS, according to a charity report
Diabetes UK’s annual State of the Nation report says that 40% of people with diabetes are not receiving the NICE-recommended checks that they need to manage their condition.
Over the last year the number of people with type 1 diabetes receiving the recommended amount of annual checks has reduced from 43% to 41% and only 16% meet the three recommended treatment targets for blood sugar, cholesterol and blood pressure.
This is despite the fact that spending on diabetes accounts for about 10% of the entire NHS budget. However, Diabetes UK has warned that the 80% of this money is being spent on treating complications and not enough being invested on healthcare to prevent them.
The report also shows that working age people are less likely to receive recommended care and meet treatment targets than older people. For example, in the under-40s, only 29% of people with type 1 diabetes and 46% with type 2 diabetes received their eight annual checks.
The figures for children and young people with diabetes are worse. In 2012-13, only 12% of young people aged between 12 and 19 had all their annual care checks while one in four had “worryingly high” blood glucose levels.
Barbara Young, Diabetes UK chief executive, said: “This is not a question of spending more money. In fact, better ongoing standards of care will save money and reduce pressure on NHS resources.
“It’s about people getting the checks they need at their GP surgery and giving people the support and education they need to be able to manage their own condition. Doing this, together with improving diabetes care in hospital, would give people with diabetes a better chance of a long and healthy life, and save the NHS a significant amount of money. We want to work with local authorities to be able to help them put good practice into place.”
Diabetes is estimated to cost the UK £23.7bn. With diabetes becoming more common, this figure is set to rise to £40bn by 2035-36.
Simon Jones, commercial director of Inhealthcare and former NHS director believes that if it were made easier for patients to manage the condition then fewer complications would arise.
He said: “At the heart of the problem is that patients are not getting the regular checks they need, yet the more regularly diabetes patients are checked by doctors on factors such as weight, blood pressure and blood glucose, the better they can manage the disease. It is shocking that Diabetes UK has found that 59% of patients with type 1 diabetes do not receive all the annual checks recommended by the Annual Institute for Health and Care excellence and something that needs to be addressed, urgently.
“There are a number of reasons why patients are not being checked as often as they should be. Appointments are limited, busy patients cannot make the time for regular visits to the doctor, and often patients are not well-informed enough on the disease to understand why regular tests are so important. However, these issue could easily be solved with proper education for diabetes patients and the utilisation of remote monitoring technology.”
Professor Kevin Fenton of Public Health England (PHE) said free health checks were available to help spot and manage diabetes. He added that disease prevention programmes were also under way.
"PHE and NHS England are developing a nationwide type 2 diabetes prevention programme which will support those most at risk to make essential lifestyle changes – such as losing weight, improving their diet and being more active,” he said.
"We need to help people take early action to reduce their risk of developing this serious condition."
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