The cost of diabetes is not only measured by those living with the disease but it also has far reaching financial implications.
The journal Diabetic Medicine once stated that most NHS spending on diabetes was wasteful and that more frequent health checks and risk assessments could reduce this.
The report also predicts that by 2035, diabetes will cost the NHS £16.8bn, 17% of its entire budget.
There are currently 3.8 million people living with diabetes in the UK and the cost of treating later onset type 2 was costing £8.8 billion per year in comparison to the £1 billion bill for type 1 which usually starts in childhood.
Baroness Barbara Young, from Diabetes UK – one of the charities involved in the Impact Diabetes report – said: “The report shows that without urgent action, the already huge sums of money spent on treating diabetes will rise to unsustainable levels that threaten to bankrupt the NHS.
She said: “We need to make sure… that we prevent people getting diabetes through good risk assessment and early diagnosis to prevent spending on avoidable complications.”
A Department of Health spokeswoman said that this was something they were doing as diabetes is a very serious illness and has a large impact on the NHS. They are tackling the issue on 3 fronts
- Through the prevention of Type 2 diabetes – encouraging people to eat well and be more active.
- Helping people to manage their diabetes through the nine annual health care checks performed in primary care.
- Having better management of the condition in hospital.
[…] in 20 of the UK population is being treated for diabetes according to Diabetes UK which also estimates 850,000 people have the condition and are […]