New research highlights diabetes ‘national health emergency’

A new report compiled by Diabetes UK and Tesco has shed light on the increasingly critical need to improve diabetes diagnosis and treatment strategies in Britain.

According to the analysis, based on National Diabetes Audit data, more than 700 people a day are diagnosed with diabetes in the UK, with a further 30 people receiving a type 1 diabetes diagnosis daily.

It means there are more than 280,000 people a year diagnosed with diabetes – much higher than previously thought. A total of 3.8 million people in the UK now have the condition, while around 35 percent of the population have pre-diabetes.

The report called this a "national health emergency", demanding greater investment in the diagnosis of high-risk patients, while recommending that everyone aged 40 to 74 should get an NHS Health Check.

Barbara Young, chief executive of Diabetes UK, said: "As a country, we are still not giving diabetes healthcare the priority it needs, and we also need to get much better at preventing type 2 diabetes before it is too late."

This comes after the charity recently called for the NHS system to change to support better care planning for long-term conditions, including diabetes.