The national charity Diabetes UK has warned that the level of healthcare for people with diabetes is now in crisis.
The organisation has just issued a report, entitled “State of the Nation 2012”, which claims that under half of diabetes patients are receiving the basic minimum care they require, and that in some parts of the country only six per cent of diabetics are being given the regular checks and services recommended by the National Institute of Health and Clinical Excellence (NICE).
The new report also provides further information on the increasing problems linked to this lack of healthcare, including complications such as heart disease, blindness, amputation, kidney failure and stroke, which are thought to account for four fifths of the NHS spend on diabetes. It criticises the existing National Service Framework for diabetes as failing to ensure that patients receive proper healthcare.
The report also recommends that the coalition government take steps to introduce more effective risk assessment and early diagnosis for type 2 diabetes and that all those diagnosed with diabetes should have access to education to help them to self-manage their condition.
Barbara Young, the chief executive of Diabetes UK, pointed out “We already know that diabetes in costing the NHS a colossal amount of money, but this report shows how in exchange for this investment we are getting second-rate healthcare that is putting people with diabetes at increased risk of tragic complications and early death.”
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