National charity agrees new diabetes strategy

The national charity Diabetes UK has announced a set of new targets for reducing the increase in numbers of people developing type 2 diabetes, and also cutting the complication rate for people with the condition by half over the next five years.
In addition, the charity has said it will try to raise the life expectancy for patients with type 1 and type 2 diabetes, as they tend to die between 10 and 20 years younger on average than people who don’t suffer from the metabolic condition.
Barbara Young, chief executive of Diabetes UK, argued that although the charity couldn’t achieve such positive results on their ow, it is still important to set strategic targets and be accountable to them, rather than just to ensure that the rise in diabetic numbers were provided for.
She said “We had a strong and spirited debate about whether we were there as the organisation for people with diabetes, or whether we were there to make life better for the people at high risk of diabetes and to improve outcomes for people with diabetes by not developing complications. Luckily I think we came to the right conclusion.”
After much internal discussio, she added that “I think everybody’s pretty powerfully behind the strategy.”