NHS urged to increase screening of diabetics

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.