IDDT responds to the State of the Nation Report by Diabetes UK

IDDT responds to the State of the Nation Report by Diabetes UK

On January 14th 2015, Diabetes UK published its annual State of the Nation Report with a press release which led with ‘The poor state of diabetes healthcare in England is leading to avoidable deaths and record rates of complications.’

The report highlights statistics from various surveys and audits already published showing that there has been very little overall improvement in diabetes healthcare during the past year. It highlights that 40% of people with diabetes are not receiving the 9 key health checks recommended by the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE). It also states that some aspects of care are worse, such as the number of people with Type 1 diabetes receiving the 9 key checks has dropped from 43% to 41%.

Diabetes accounts for 10% of the NHS budget, however, the Diabetes UK report claims that the care model is not appropriate, is responsible for the lack of improvement and that diabetes care does not need more funds. In contrast, Dr Jonathan Valabhji, National Clinical Director for Obesity and Diabetes, pointed out on Today, BBC Radio 4 (14.01.15), that for individuals with diabetes, the delivery and outcomes have actually improved and the risk of complications in individuals has also gone down.

IDDT was called upon to respond to the Report and we stated:
Surely the situation is straightforward. Over the last few years, the care of people with diabetes has largely been moved from secondary care to primary care and at the same time, there has been a huge rise in the numbers diagnosed, especially with Type 2 diabetes. However, the resources to deal with these changes have not been allocated to GP practices in terms of their staffing levels and diabetes education of the health professionals involved. Equally, there is a shortage of dietitians and podiatrists to advise and treat the increasing numbers of people with diabetes.

More resources are needed and these do cost money. At the same time there is a need for Public Health England to develop and ensure implementation of a prevention programme for Type 2 diabetes. This again costs money, so our view is that more funds and resources, in terms of trained staff, are essential to improve the care and treatment of people with diabetes.

Note: the State of the Nation Report can be found at: www.diabetes.org.uk.