The number of people with diagnosed diabetes has doubled in just 15 years, experts have said.
NHS figures have shown that there are now five million people in England who have either type 1 or type 2 diabetes, compared with just 4.1m back in 2004/5.
Soaring obesity levels are being blamed for the surge in type 2 diabetes cases. NHS England recently reported that obesity-related hospital admissions have gone up with a record one million people being hospitalised in England from 2019 to 2020.
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The increase of type 2 diabetes is particularly worrying during the pandemic as research has shown that people with the condition are twice as likely to die from CoVID19.
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Speaking to the Mail Online, Tam Fry, chairman of the National Obesity Forum, said: “The figures should surprise no one. For 20 years successive governments have done next to nothing to tackle obesity – the principal trigger of diabetes – and the numbers have rocketed as a direct consequence.
“Although the NHS diabetes prevention programme has been heralded as the answer to preventing further escalation, the predictions point to the fact that it will fail, too.”
So far, the programme has helped around 750,000 people who have been identified at risk of developing type 2 diabete, lose weight and start making better lifestyle choices so they can improve their health outcomes.
