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A Burden on the NHS - Type 2's

lucylocket61

Expert
Messages
6,394
Location
Wrexham
Type of diabetes
Type 2
Treatment type
Diet only
I read a few comments recently about how we are being told our condition is an burden on the NHS and our treatment costs too much. This implies, to me anyway, that somehow we dont deserve our treatment.

I see this as part of the publicity in the Media to blame us for our condition. My friends who have cancer dont get told they are a burden or their treatment costs too much. My friend who has dialysis doesnt get told that either.

However, another person I know, who got liver trouble, was blamed for her hedonistic lifestyle when she doesnt even drink :shock:

As far as I am concerned, we deserve treatment, we are entitled to treatment, and we should NOT be made to feel guilty or told repeatedly how much our treatment is costing when we seek vital treatment.

I also, personally, dont consider that money should even be mentioned. I have paid my NI and Taxes for 33 years. If the successive governments have misappropriated the funds that I paid into, in order to receive treatment when needed, then that is neither my fault or my problem.

It is a re-herring to deflect blame to the victim once again :twisted:

(can you tell I am cross about this?)
 
Well, if for a start they'd stop recommending we overload our panc with ****** foods and sugar, then in 20-40 years, I'd be willing to discuss it with them.

:evil:
 
This blame game and hitting Diabetes patients with the obesity stick is too easy. The Media are always going on about obesity and a sedentry lifestyle!

There are other ways of being lazy and to me this is one of them. It is soooo easy to blame it all on obesity. Where is the get up and go to

1. Research properly and get more correct and factual information about diabetes out there!

2. Take note, report and take positive action on the numbers of T2's loosing alot of weight and getting BG control by Low Carbing.

3. Making sure that the correct treatment is there to support the wide variety of types of diabetes.

4. Finding ways of making sure that ALL diabetics have access to appropriate testing and relevant education for thier type!

Lucy xxx
 
It is often inferred that Type 2 diabetics are fat and stupid and that they brought it on themselves. This creates a lot of stigma.

With my friends and colleagues, I tell them on a need to know basis. I don't want it common knowledge that I have diabetes because of the stigma. It is so much easier to tell them about my wheat intolerance, it is my get out of jail card to refuse all the cake that goes around the office.
 
I get hopping mad about this "blame the patient" attitude.
I personally don't cost as much as many hypochondriacs. I see the GP rarely, maybe 4 times a year. I use minimal medication, and buy my own strips.
When I do turn to the NHS for help, which is almost never, I'm more than likely dissatisfied.
Hana
 
What makes me mad are all these "regulators" who are supposedly looking after us/protecting us - but in reality they are as much use as a chocolate fireguard.

Classic example being the Foods Standards Agency. If those useless pen pushers got of their backsides and actually did something about all the junk foods and additives out there I'm convinced obesity and diabetes in this country wouldn't be half as bad as it is now.

Another useless government quango in my humble opinion. :evil:
 
You're so right about the evils of the 'blame the patient', and this is the real battleground. If public opinion (prompted by the media) blames diabetics for bringing it on themselves then govt policy and funding will follow the lead. As I'm a slim, 'type weird' diabetic i wasted a lot of my time early on after diagnosis telling people that not all non-T1 diabetics are overweight etc, but I realise now that in a way I was actually colluding with the negative stereotyping (implying that slim diabetics are Ok and shouldn't be grouped with overweight ones). Given that we will never know the precise combination of circumstances that cause T2 in each individual, should we be focussing people's attention more on all the overweight people who DON'T develop diabetes? THEY are the proof that this is not a simple result of overeating or a sedentary lifestyle, but that it is a real disease with real victims among those who do develop the condition. How can people be blamed for having a genetic predisposition to develop diabetes?
 
Perhaps if the govenments of the last 40 years had insured that our food was fit for consumption rather than filled with sugar they would have a point
 
As an adult I do strongly believe that we must all take responsibility for our own actions - but I also believe strongly that our elected government does likewise.

Part of the problem is that government makes lots of tax revenue out of the sugar industry, the tobacco industry, the oil industry, the alcohol industry, etc, etc.

Just look how long it's taken government to finally crack down on the tobacco industry?

How long will it take before they grasp the nettle on junk food, additives in virtually all our foodstuffs on supermarket shelves, etc?

Alcohol related illnesses and accidents drain large amounts of cash out of the NHS too. Same problem; government make lots of tax revenue out of the alcohol industry.

We need some joined up thinking from government and the various quango's set up to supposedly keep us safe
 

You are sooo right. I used to try to do the same and then realised that I was falling into the negetive stereotyping. It is just easy for the medical profession and the media to place all the blame on obesity.
 

I understand why you feel like this but we do all need to stick together and speak up for T2s and ALL Diabetics regardless of type ( I am T1 ) instead of bowing down to inaccurate steroetyping. Thants the only way to brake the cycle.

Lucy.
 
lucylocket61 said:
As far as I am concerned, we deserve treatment, we are entitled to treatment, and we should NOT be made to feel guilty or told repeatedly how much our treatment is costing when we seek vital treatment.
Click to expand...


True right lucy :thumbup:
 
I often wonder who the NHS is actually for? People wih chronic condiions are blamed for their lifestyles, this can even be rue of cancer sufferers. People engaging in sports , people not doing enough exercise. equally culpable.

Those seeking fertility treatment, those having "too many " children. Those trying to keep family menbers allive for an inconveniently long time, those seeking euthanasia. Those who haven't lived here for very long and thus have not conributed sufficiently and finally those who have contributed all their lives and in their old age require, someimes for the first time, some healhcare. They are aking too much of the budget. They haven't got long to live anyhow . The money should be spent n younger people or childrem!
I am not accusing the NHS of this attitude or individual, Drs but society. It tends to be only when we are in one of hese categories
and need healhcare that we are made aware of the bias .
 
If they'd actually stressed just how important it would be for me to have got my act together when they originally told me I was Pre-Diabetic when I my glucose tolerance test revealed I had an impaired glucose tolerance and actually provided some support then I perhaps might not have gone on to become type 2 diabetic this year...

they need to follow the adage that an ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure...

All I got was a diet leaflet and told I'd get another blood test in a year's time... simply NOT GOOD ENOUGH... I was not told that I had to buck up and lose weight and change my diet radically to avoid damaging my beta cells with high blood glusose levels... in fact they were pushing a low-fat regime on me for my cholesterol levels as they had me on statins... and we all know now that the low-fat processed foods are packed with hidden sugars...
 
Oh how this annoys me too :evil:

I have been told that treatments I've asked for to help my fibromyalgia is "too expensive" and "won't work as nothing helps that condition" and that if I wasn't "so grossly overweight" all of my ailments would be magically cured.
Which is utter horse poop considering I had chronic fatigue and fibromyalgia BEFORE I gained weight - they were the reason I gained, not the other way around.

Now I'm being told that certain medications for diabetes are "much more expensive" than the one I take now so rather than give me something that might actually help, they would prefer giving me the cheaper option and save their pennies.
 

Yes same thing. In my case at the pre diabetic stage they just gave out some diet advise, which I followed, then even though they took more blood samples 3 months later they forgot to tell me for a further 8 months that within that 3 months their diet had made me T2.
 
Me too!Told I had slightly high sugar, given diet and exercise sheet ,told to eat very low fat (they were more interested in my high triglycerides and were convinced I was a heavy drinker. I dont think the doctor believed me that I was actually tee total !! )The word pre-diabetes was not even mentioned.I wasnt offered a follow up blood test either.So,3 years later, of low fat high carb diet,getting even fatter ,full blown diabetes with neuropathy in feet.So so wish I had found this forum ,and known what I do now, sooner. I swing between thinking to myself "oh god, why didnt I research this sooner" to "why the hell wasnt I given the correct help and information by my ( then)trusted doctor and told how serious it was.
 
[/quote]

The internet is truly a wonderful thing.

I too have benefited from this forum and got my neuropathy under control from very valuable info gleaned from here.

Why don't the owners of this website CHALLENGE the words and advice given by GP's? Clearly they are dispensing wrong or inaccurate info up and down the country and hindering, not helping patients cope with betes?
 
Just been to have my bloods done this morning. Our DSN took my blood. I'm not diabetic, but they are testing my blood for glucose this morning so I asked, again, how they would know if I'm diabetic because I've been low-carbing for four months now. She said "If you're a diabetic who's not on medication, so uncontrolled, it will show in your bloods" Good luck with that - my reading was 4.3 twenty mins before I had my blood taken......that's low for me , I average about 5.2 usually. Two hours later, after only a coffee and some nuts, it was 4.4.

Her view of T2's who are overweight is that "they are diabetic because they are over weight and eating all the wrong stuff" and in her opinion, a "true diabetic" is the skinny person who's diagnosed as T2 once in a blue moon. Make of that what you will, but her demeanour suggested that overweight T2s brought diabetes upon themselves. She was quite horrifed when I suggested that NHS dietary guidelines don't help, quite the contrary in fact.

Ju
 
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