Jeremy Hunt calls for cash injection to improve diabetes care in UK

Health secretary Jeremy Hunt will on Thursday urge healthcare leaders to make significant improvements in the care and support available to people with diabetes in the UK.
Hunt will be speaking at the launch of a new report titled ‘Diabetes Care: Improving Standards and Reducing Variation’, which has been written by a group of MPs.
The report outlines significant variations in diabetes care across the country, and calls for an additional £40 million of funding to transform diabetes services in worse performing areas.
The funding would then be used to make priority improvements to make sure people with diabetes are not missing out on vital care and support – the report highlights a current lottery of care that exists not just by postcode but also by diabetes type and age.
These priority improvements are:
High quality conversations with the right healthcare professionals: Also giving people with diabetes tailored treatment plans and the ability to input into the decision-making process with their healthcare team
Support people with diabetes to manage their condition: The report highlights Berkshire West CCG as an area that has radically increased the number of people attending structured education courses
Access to key technologies: The Academic Health Science Network for South London is hailed for increasing the amount of adults with diabetes on insulin pumps in South London by 31 per cent
The report also stresses the need to reduce the cost of diabetes on the NHS, which is approximated at £10 billion a year, of which 80 per cent is spent on preventable complications such as amputations and blindness.
MPs have urged Clinical Commission Groups in England to raise this extra £40 million to help put better systems of care in place for younger people with type 1 diabetes and type 2 diabetes to help teach them how to avoid developing complications.
Keith Vaz MP, Chair of the All Party Parliamentary Group for Diabetes, said: “Our message is that variation is not a signal of despair; but of hope. It shows that good care can be achieved, and we’re tasking CCG leaders with making it happen everywhere to tackle the diabetes crisis.”