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Mike Hancock calls for action on World Diabetes Day
Mike Hancock MP calls for action on World Diabetes Day
Diabetes UK: care failings put 1 in 4 people with diabetes at risk of amputation
Mike Hancock, MP for Portsmouth South, supported Diabetes UK on World Diabetes Day (14 November) as a new survey by the leading health charity revealed one in four1 people with diabetes in the UK could be at risk of amputation as they have not received a foot check in the last year.
Mike Hancock signed an Early Day Motion tabled in Parliament by Labour MP for Ealing South Virendra Sharma which calls for people with diabetes to receive all the vital 15 health checks and services they need as part of an integrated diabetes service. The charity is calling on the Government to support its 15 healthcare essentials campaign to help ensure that the 2.9 million people diagnosed with the condition in the UK receive the care they need to stay healthy.
Mike Hancock said: "As a sufferer of diabates myself, I recognise the risks involved and the need to address the issues raised by Diaebetes UK. There are now over 8,000 people with diabetes in Portsmouth, which is almost a five per cent increase on the number of people diagnosed with the condition last year.
"If we do not step in now to improve the levels of care people with diabetes in our area receive then even greater numbers will be at risk of developing health complications. This is an unacceptable prospect, so we must tackle this problem now. The human and financial cost along with the impact on the NHS is simply too big to ignore."
Diabetes UK Regional Manager for South East, Jill Steaton, said: "The rising tide of diabetes-related complications threatens to bankrupt the NHS as well as ruin people's lives. It is vital that every one of the 2.9 million people with diabetes in the UK receives the 15 basic checks and services they need to prevent them from developing devastating complications. We are also calling on the many healthcare professionals who are already backing the campaign for better standards of care to ensure this becomes a reality for their patients."
People with diabetes are up to 15 times more likely to have a major amputation than people without the condition3 and should receive a foot and leg check as part of their annual healthcare review. The survey results, based on the personal experiences of over 7,000 people with diabetes in the UK4, clearly show that people with the condition are not receiving the care they need and also reinforce clinical figures from the National Diabetes Audit5 released earlier this year, which revealed one in six people with diabetes (16.5 per cent) had not received a foot check in the last year6.
Diabetes UK is urging people to take action on World Diabetes Day (14 November) by supporting the charity's new 15 healthcare essentials campaign, which outlines the minimum standards of care people with diabetes should receive, and passing the checklist on to at least one person they know with diabetes.
This is vital because:
- People with diabetes are up to four times more likely to have a heart attack and up to five times more likely to have kidney failure than people without the condition3.
- There are 2.9 million people with diabetes in the UK, equating to 4.45 per cent of the adult population.7 It is also estimated there are an additional 850,000 people who have undiagnosed Type 2 diabetes8 (totalling 3.75 million people with diabetes in the UK).
Other complications of diabetes include stroke and blindness, however many complications can be prevented if people regularly receive the care and support they need to manage their condition.
For more information about Diabetes UK's 15 healthcare essentials campaign visit www.diabetes.org.uk/15-essentials
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