Diabetes up 60% in last decade

The number of people living with diabetes in the UK has soared by 59.8 per cent in a decade, according to a new analysis by Diabetes UK

The new figures, extracted from official NHS data, show that there are now 3,333,069 people diagnosed with diabetes, which is an increase of more than 1.2 million adults compared with ten years ago when, in 2005, there were 2,086,041 people diagnosed with the condition. This doesn’t take into account the 590,000 adults estimated to have undiagnosed diabetes in 2013-2014.

Diabetes UK is warning that this exponential growth in numbers reflects an urgent need for effective care for people living with diabetes, as well as highlighting the importance of prevention and that failure to act on this threatens to bring down the NHS.

Earlier this year MPN published a rundown of five ways in which medical plastics are being used in key diabetes treatments.

At present only six in ten people with diabetes in England and Wales receive the eight care processes recommended by the National Institute for Health Care and Excellence (NICE). These are the checks identified as essential in high quality care for people with diabetes and include getting blood pressure and blood glucose levels measured, as well as the kidney function monitored, otherwise poorly managed diabetes can lead to devastating and expensive health complications such as kidney disease, stroke and amputation.