Diabetes out of control in England

Just one in three diabetes patients correctly manage their blood sugar, blood pressure, and cholesterol levels, according to data from Public Health England (PHE), leading to a significant increase in avoidable complications.
In fact, targets are not being met in any areas of treatment, increasing the levels of amputation (120 a week), blindness, kidney failure, and mortality.
Barbara Young, Chief Executive of Diabetes UK, said: “It is deeply worrying that there is a postcode lottery in diabetes healthcare and also huge variation in the proportion of people who have their diabetes under control.”
Young was not optimistic about the future of diabetes treatment. “This is just the latest in a long line of statistics that show that diabetes healthcare is hugely geographically variable and in many places is not good enough. The public deserve more than politicians and NHS leaders wringing their hands about it but then failing to do anything meaningful to try to fix it.”
In West Suffolk, only 29 per cent of patients receive correct diabetes treatment. Similar figures were observed in Stafford.
48 per cent of patients in Wigan meet all three diabetes management targets, making them the most well-treated in the country.