'Life-saving' course on managing diabetes benefiting few patients
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Version 0 of 1. Many patients with diabetes are at risk of blindness, amputation and even death because so few of them attend courses about how to manage their condition, a leading charity has warned. Diabetes UK said a mere 8,274 of the 144,352 people newly diagnosed with the disease in England and Wales in 2014-15 went to a diabetes education course, which advises patients on how to stay as healthy as possible. Only 103 (2%) of the 5,442 people diagnosed with type 1 attended a course, while just 8,171 (5.9%) of the 138,910 found to have type 2 did so, according to the charity’s annual assessment of diabetes care. It says the NHS is operating a postcode lottery in the availability of such courses, which denies many the chance to attend. “In some areas thousands of people with diabetes have attended education courses that give them the confidence and skills to take control of their condition. They can be life-saving. So it is galling that in most places these courses have reached a fraction of those who could benefit,” said Chris Askew, chief executive of Diabetes UK. The charity claims that the NHS’s widespread failure to lay on education courses is a false economy because patients who do not manage their diabetes properly are at greater risk of experiencing serious complications, which can include strokes. Treating such side-effects adds to the NHS’s annual bill for diabetes, which is already £10bn. The number of people diagnosed with diabetes in Britain has soared over the past few years, particularly as a result of obesity, to over 3.5 million. About 90% of patients have type 2 diabetes, which is lifestyle-related, and the others have type 1 diabetes, an auto-immune condition. The increasing burden that diabetes is placing on the NHS is demonstrated by the fact that in some hospitals in England almost 40% of all inpatients are diabetic. Overall the figure is one in six (17%). “The figures are alarming and confirm that diabetes is one of the fastest-growing health challenges facing the UK today,” said Izzi Seccombe, the Local Government Association’s portfolio holder for community and wellbeing. “We need to increase awareness of the risks, bring about wholesale changes in lifestyle, improve self-management among people with diabetes and improve access to integrated diabetes care services.” Diabetes UK said the failure of many local NHS organisations around England was a key reason for the tiny number of patients attending courses. The charity discovered last November that about a third of GP-led clinical commissioning groups – 72 out of the 208 that responded to a freedom of information request – did not commission diabetes courses, even though all CCGs are meant to do so. Patients who attend can benefit by, for example, losing weight, lowering their cholesterol or blood-sugar level or reducing their blood pressure. Anecdotal evidence from patients suggests that many health professionals do not highlight the importance of participating in education courses to newly diagnosed patients, and that often when classes are laid on, they are at times that many people find inconvenient. Few patients are attending sessions despite NHS efforts to improve provision. Diabetes UK says that 60% more people were offered such a course in 2014-15 than in 2012-13. |