Diabetes affects over three million people in England alone and the condition's prevalence continues to increase. [1]
It is estimated that there are an additional 850,000 people with diabetes in the UK who currently remain undiagnosed. [2]
It is predicted that by 2025, five million people in the UK will have diabetes. [1]
Annual spend on diabetes in the UK has been estimated at nearly £10 billion, representing ten per cent of the entire NHS budget. [1]
It is estimated that up to 24,000 avoidable deaths are caused annually by diabetes-related complications. [3]
Diabetes is responsible for over 100 amputations each week... [1]
...and the incidence of children being admitted to hospital with potentially lethal diabetic ketoacidosis has almost doubled since 2005. [1]
New figures are to be published at the end of February 2014
Despite the devastating impact of diabetes-related complications, recently published data shows that many people are still not receiving the recommended levels of care.
60.5 per cent of people with diabetes in England and Wales received 8 of the 9 NICE-recommended care processes in 2011/2012. [4]
• People with Type 1 diabetes are less likely to receive the full complement of recommended care procesess than people with Type 2 diabetes. The completion of all eight basic care processes was 43.2 per cent for people with Type 1 and 62.6 per cent for Type 2 diabetes in 2011/12. [4]
• Only 20.8 per cent of people with diabetes in England and Wales met all of their treatment targets in 2011/12. Only 11.8 per cent of people with Type 1 diabetes met these targets. [4]
Given the growing prevalence of diabetes, the costs associated with the management of the condition are rising. Many of the costs associated with the management of diabetes-related complications are avoidable.
• According to the House of Commons Public Accounts Committee, up to 80 per cent of diabetes spending in 2010 was used to treat avoidable complications relating to diabetes. [5]
• Figures produced by the York Health Economics Consortium suggest that NHS diabetes spending could reach £16.9bn over the next 25 years. This figure would represent 17 per cent of the entire NHS budget. [2]
Also - infrastructure and long-term availability of care (sufficient diabetes specialist nurses, sufficient knowledge of insulin pumps etc)
1. Diabetes UK, State of the Nation 2013
3. National Audit Office, The Management of Adult Diabetes Services in the NHS, 2012
4. National Diabetes Audit 2011 - 2012, Report 1: Care process and treatment targets
Landing page | Link used in document (PDF) | another one that works (PDF)
5. House of Commons Public Accounts Committee, The management of adult diabetes services in the NHS (Summary), 2012
Parliament PDF report arising from the NAO PDF
For the NAO PDF they analysed the following sets of data (p3 of the methodology report)
7 Key datasets obtained and evaluated included:
The National Diabetes Audit (2006-07 to 2009-10), published by the NHS Information Centre;
Inpatient HES data (2001-02 to 2009-10) collated by the NHS Information Centre;
Quality and Outcomes Framework data on diabetes (2004-05 to 2009-10), published by the NHS Information Centre; and
Programme budgeting data on diabetes (2006-07 to 2009-10), published by the Department