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Progress report
Bridget Turner, head of healthcare and policy at Diabetes UK, provided an update on the progress made in establishing a national screening service for diabetes-related eye disease. Awareness of the disease was growing, she said.
At present, diabetes is the leading cause of blindness in people of working age in the UK and early treatment can prevent blindness in 90 per cent of cases. In recent times, there has been an increase in awareness among diabetics about the risk of blindness, from 50 per cent in 2000 to 63 per cent this year. Much has been achieved, Turner said, through the roll-out of the national screening service. In the last five years, 120 local programmes have been established in England and Scotland, along with a central programme in Wales and Northern Ireland. Around 76 per cent of these programmes are close to reaching milestone targets.
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