Care trusts failing to raise awareness of diabetes

According to leading health charity Diabetes UK, around half of all UK Primary Care Trusts in England are not doing enough to raise the awareness of diabetes amongst members of the public.
The charity reported that around 53% of PCTs do not even have strategies to increase awareness about type 2 diabetes and type 1 diabetes . In a report entitled Access to Health Services, on in three PCTs have no programme to identify type 2 diabetes at an early stage.
The chief executive of Diabetes UK, Douglas Smallwood, reportedly commented: ‘PCTs have an important role to play in raising awareness of both type-1 and type-2 diabetes and informing people of how simple lifestyles changes, such as eating a healthy diet and being physically active, can help reduce their risk of developing type-2 diabetes.’
The need to identify diabetes at an early stage is paramount. If blood glucose levels are poorly managed for a long period of time, the danger of diabetes complications increases significantly.