A new report in Diabetic Medicine has projected that the NHS annual UK spend on diabetes will rise from £9.6bn to £16.9bn over the next 25 years.
The Impact Diabetes report pointed out that this would lead to the NHS spending 17 per cent of its entire budget on the condition and added that the cost of treating diabetes complications could rise from £7.7bn to £13.5bn by 2035/6.
With 79 per cent of NHS diabetes spend going on complications, it said a less expensive approach would be to invest in checks and services to manage the condition and reduce the risk of complications.
Bridget Turner, head of policy for Diabetes UK, said: 'Diabetes is the leading cause of working age blindness and every year there are 1,280 new cases of blindness caused by diabetic retinopathy. This is why it is so important that people with the condition have eye screening once a year, but this is not happening enough at the moment. About a fifth of people with diabetes are not getting their eyes screened and this is something we want the NHS to urgently address.'
In Ireland, progress has stalled on creating a €4m Health Service Executive national screening programme for diabetic retinopathy (DR). Diabetes Action and The National Council for the Blind of Ireland (NCBI) claimed that an average of one person with diabetes would go blind each week, with patients unlikely to be seen until mid-2013.
Dr Kevin Moore, chairman of Diabetes Action, said 190,000 people in Ireland had diabetes, 30,000 of whom were undiagnosed. 'Clinicians want people with diabetes to be offered eye screening annually to detect DR and to ensure early diagnosis and treatment - it is one of the most important goals for diabetes care in Ireland and will impact on the quality of life for thousands of people living with diabetes.'
NCBI chief executive Des Kenny said: 'It is vital that DR is diagnosed early and the most effective way to do this for a large group, like the diabetic populations, is through a national screening programme.'
