Diabetes care needs support of practices

Diabetes screening services were called on to form strong links with local eye care providers amid a 'post code lottery' in the Diabetes UK State of the Nation 2012 report this week.

The report said although diabetes was the leading cause of blindness in working age people in the UK, the treatment people received varied greatly depending on where they lived.

Analysis of National Diabetes Audit data by Diabetes UK showed that an average of 76.9 per cent of patients received retinal screening across the country in 2010. However, there was a wide variation between the PCTs studied, with 91.4 per cent screened in the best performing trust and 52.9 per cent in the worst. This compared to an overall average of 49.8 per cent of patients receiving a full programme of recommended checks each year.