Data from the 2014–2015 National Diabetes Audit were released on 28th January, revealing that, in England and Wales, while three quarters of people with diabetes are now achieving target blood pressure levels, the proportion of people receiving the eight annual care processes recommended by NICE has fallen.
Only 38.7% of people with type 1 diabetes and 58.7% of those with type 2 diabetes received all eight tests last year, down on the year before and the lowest numbers seen since the Health and Social Care Information Centre began monitoring these parameters in 2009–2010. The figures were particularly bad among under-40s. In this age group, only 27.3% of people with type 1 diabetes and 40.8% of those with type 2 received all eight check-ups.
Chris Askew, Chief Executive of Diabetes UK, said: “It is deeply worrying that such a low percentage of younger people with diabetes are receiving all eight of the vital care processes. With this reflecting patterns of previous years, urgent action must be taken to ensure younger people too are given the best chances of good health and don’t continue to be left behind. We know that young people may struggle to fit in getting the checks with work and a busy life. But it is vital that commissioners look at ways to enable more young people to have better access to the healthcare services that will help them to manage their diabetes on a day to day basis.”
He also noted that, “while we are pleased to see a small rise in take-up for some of the key tests across all age groups, such as blood pressure, cholesterol and HbA1c, we have also seen an 8.0% drop in the number of people with type 1 diabetes getting their urine albumin test and a drop of 9.8% for type 2 diabetes receiving this test. Not getting this check means people are less likely to find out they have kidney damage until it has already developed into an extremely serious health issue.”
More positive news from the report was that there has been a steady increase in the proportion of people with diabetes who achieve the blood pressure target of ≤140/80 mmHg. This hit 76.4% in those with type 1 diabetes and 74.2% in those with type 2 diabetes, compared with 68.5% and 60.8%, respectively, in 2009–2010.
Finally, the Audit report concludes that there is unacceptably wide variation in the NHS’s performance on diabetes, with some parts of England and Wales undertaking all required health checks in only 24.8% while others manage to do this in 80.6%.
Based on this, Diabetes UK is appealing for a greater sense of urgency when it comes to diabetes care. Mr Askew said: “We want to work with Clinical Commissioning Groups and NHS England to address the major problems in diabetes and turn 2016 into a year where local healthcare teams are given the support to really make a difference to people living with diabetes so that they do not continue to suffer the very serious complications of poorly managed diabetes.”
The Audit report can be read in full here.
