£1m a day to treat diabetes

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DIABETES costs the National Health Service more than £1m a day in North East England, according to a new report.
The study, produced by Diabetes UK, reveals that 10 per cent of the NHS budget is spent on treating the condition and its complications.

According to the report, called Diabetes: Beware the Silent Assassin, one in 10 people in hospital in the UK have the condition.

Linda Wood, regional manager for Diabetes UK, said: "Diabetes causes heart disease, stroke, amputations, kidney failure and blindness.

"It causes more deaths than breast and prostate cancer combined. Type-two diabetes can remain undetected for 10 years or more before someone is diagnosed. It really is a silent assassin.

"About 30,000 people in North East England have the condition, but do
not even know it, and by the time they are diagnosed with type-two diabetes, 50 per cent of people are found to have started developing complications."

Diabetes UK has launched a campaign to highlight how serious a condition it can be and raise awareness of its potentially devastating complications.

Estimates suggest there will be 190,000 people with diabetes in the region by 2025.

Ms Wood added: "We want to prevent thousands of people from facing a future of ill health and reduced life expectancy."

Diabetes services at South Tyneside NHS Foundation Trust were ranked second best in the country earlier this year.

A Trust spokesman said: "Ten per cent of the national healthcare spending is a widely-accepted figure used for describing the cost of caring for all aspects of diabetes in the NHS.

"This includes primary and secondary care, and treatments for diabetes patients for non-diabetes-related medical and surgical procedures, among other things.

"As providers of care to diabetic patients, we would always welcome any increase in resources being directed towards this very important area."