One in seven hospital patients is diabetic: NHS now pays record £10billion a year to treat the condition
- Campaigners warn ‘eye-watering’ cost of diabetes is getting worse
- Illness linked to lifestyle factors such as being overweight or obese
- It already accounts for about 10 per cent of the total NHS budget
- The costs will soar further over the next 20 years, it is claimed
Campaigners warn the ‘eye-watering’ cost of diabetes is going to get worse.
The illness is strongly linked to lifestyle factors such as being overweight or obese, too little exercise and an unhealthy diet.
‘Eye watering’ cost: Diabetes is strongly linked to lifestyle factors such as being overweight or obese, too little exercise and an unhealthy diet (file picture)
It already accounts for about 10 per cent of the total NHS budget, with most being spent on complications such as amputations and stroke.
The costs will soar further over the next 20 years, when it is projected to soak up 17 per cent of the entire NHS budget, says a report.
It will also increase the costs of social care, while a further £9billion is lost to the economy because of reduced productivity or those with diabetes being forced out of work altogether.
Some 3.8million people in the UK have diabetes, including 600,000 who are unaware they have it. The total is predicted to rise to 5million by 2025.
Nine in ten of those with diabetes have type-2, which occurs when the body gradually loses the ability to process blood sugar, leading to high levels which can damage organs and cause years of ill-health.
A report by the charity Diabetes UK says the £10billion the NHS now spends on diabetes care is too often being spent badly.
At present the NHS in England spends £2.3billion-£2.5billion on hospital inpatient care alone for diabetes, around 11 per cent of all expenditure on inpatient care.
Those who are diagnosed late or do not receive timely care can find themselves having to spend extra days in hospital and suffering from kidney and nerve damage as a knock-on effect, running up huge bills for the NHS.
The report says only one in ten of those newly diagnosed are offered education on managing their condition.
Those patients have a longer length of stay in hospital – on average by three days – and regularly experience medical mistakes, especially medication errors, and avoidable deterioration in their condition.
While vast amounts of money is being ploughed into diabetes treatment, it is too often used ineffectively, the charity warns.
The report sets out a series of measures it claims will save the Health Service billions and improve care.
It says that better education on how to manage the condition can save £2,200 a patient, while a reduction in foot amputations – a traumatic and expensive complication of diabetes – could save hundreds of millions of pounds a year.
Diabetes can damage the eyes, heart, nerves, feet and kidneys, leaving many dependent on gruelling and costly dialysis machines.
The vast majority of the £10billion – around 80 per cent – goes on treating complications that may have been prevented if the patient had received good care in the first place.
Barbara Young, chief executive of Diabetes UK, said: ‘The NHS is spending an eye-watering amount on diabetes but the money isn’t being used effectively, which is running up a huge bill for the future.
This report shows how by dealing with problems early, such as by improved inpatient care and effective care planning, costs could be greatly reduced and more people would live longer and healthier lives.
‘Too often, the focus is on cutting costs in the short-term such as by cutting diabetes specialist nurses, restricting access to blood glucose test strips and poorly planned transferrals to primary care. But this is making it difficult for those with diabetes to manage the condition and is offering poor value for money for taxpayers.’
At present the NHS in England spends £2.3billion-£2.5billion on hospital inpatient care alone for diabetes, around 11 per cent of all expenditure on inpatient care.
With the number of patients with diabetes projected to rise to 5million by 2025, Diabetes UK says costs will go up to £17billion in 2035/36 if current levels of obesity and overweight continue.
Last night Karen Addington, chief executive of JDRF, the type-1 diabetes charity, said: ‘Better NHS care for all those with types-1 and 2 diabetes is vital and we welcome Diabetes UK’s work to draw attention to this serious issue.
‘It is also essential that the Government invests more into type-1 diabetes research, to reduce the economic costs to the NHS, improve the lives of the 400,000 people in the UK living with type-1 diabetes and ultimately find the cure.‘
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