A cross-party group of MPs have called for the Government and local health leaders to improve access to high-quality diabetes education and support.
In their new report, the All-Party Parliamentary Group (APPG) for Diabetes highlight that only 16% of people who are newly diagnosed with diabetes are offered access to a formal course on effective diabetes self-management, and only 3% actually attend one. This can have devastating health complications and is a huge drain on the NHS: of the £10 billion spent annually on diabetes, 80% is spent on treating complications that could often be avoided with good self-care.
The report highlights the two main barriers to patient education: first, Clinical Commissioning Groups (CCGs) are not commissioning education courses at the scale required by their populations, with the result that most patients are unable to attend a course. Secondly, when such courses are commissioned, they often do not meet patients’ needs, often taking place at inconvenient times for people who work, or they are not promoted by GPs. The report also reveals a lack of ongoing support after diagnosis, such as refresher courses and more informal styles of learning.
The Group has called for CCGs to commission convenient and high-quality structured education courses and offer top-up modules for all who wish to attend, and to offer other learning opportunities about diabetes and support through peers, groups, “taster sessions” and online courses and communities.
Adrian Sanders MP, chair of the APPG for Diabetes, said: “Our report shows that with better commissioning and leadership from national and local government, we can end this postcode lottery of diabetes education. We know that some areas are delivering education and support effectively; we now need to see the NHS getting better at sharing and replicating best practice across all areas. Until this happens we will continue to see people with diabetes unnecessarily facing debilitating complications, and continued unsustainable costs to the NHS.”
The full report of the APPG for Diabetes can be found here.
