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The NHS needs to switch its focus from simply offering people with diabetes the option of screening for diabetic retinopathy to a policy that increases the numbers actually being screened, a government report has recommended.

The recommendation is made in a report published by the Department of Health (DoH) which analysed the progress made in NHS diabetes care in the past five years since the publication of the Diabetes National Service Framework Delivery Strategy.

The DoH's 10-year diabetes national service framework set out 12 key standards for care when published in 2003. It included a target for 100 per cent of people with diabetes being offered screening for diabetic retinopathy to be met by end of 2007.

The report concedes that this target has been 'challenging' for a number of reasons, particularly because the number of people being identified as having diabetes is rapidly increasing. It was also revealed that from April 2008 figures showed that 89.4 per cent of people with diabetes were offered retinal screening in the previous 12 months, missing the government's 100 per cent screening target.

The report acknowledged that progress has been made but adds that challenges remain with experts estimating that around 500,000 cases may be undiagnosed in the UK.

Figures also reveal that since 2003, an extra 600,000 diagnoses have been made - the equivalent of 2,000 a week.

In response to report recommendations, the DoH and the National Screening Committee said it would continue to work with primary care trusts to make sure that retinopathy screenings were a priority.

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