A new report has warned that the cost of treating diabetes in the UK is set to soar.
The report, published in Diabetic Medicine, assessed both the direct costs to the NHS and indirect costs to society from diabetes in the UK, as well as trying to predict future costs of the condition. It found that the total number of diabetics is estimated to rise from 3.8 million to 6.25 million by 2035, with treatment using up GBP16.9 billion of the UK budget, prompting demands that the coalition government provide more investment into researching the condition.
The Impact Diabetes report, produced by the York Health Economics Consortium and developed in partnership with Diabetes UK, JDRF and Sanofi Diabetes, also claimed that the number of people with type 1 diabetes in the UK will rise from 400,000 to 650,000 by 2035, which will increase the cost of their treatment for the NHS from GBP1.9 million to GBP4.2 million.
Barbara Young, chief executive of national charity Diabetes UK, said “This report shows that without urgent action, the already huge sums of money being spent on treating diabetes will rise to unsustainable levels that threaten to bankrupt the NHS.”
She added “The most shocking part of this report is the finding that almost four-fifths of NHS diabetes spending goes on treating complications that in many cases could have been prevented.”

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