Poor diabetes services in England are contributing to thousands of preventable deaths and increasing the costs to the NHS, according to the National Audit Office.
The spending watchdog also said the Department of Health did not properly understand the costs to the taxpayer of the medical condition, which affects an estimated 3.1 million adults. The numbers are expected to increase to 3.8 million by 2020.The DoH puts its own spending on the services at £1.3bn in 2009/10, up from £0.9bn in 2006/07. But in a report published today, the NAO said this was a ‘substantial underestimate’ and based on incomplete data. The auditors estimate the NHS spent at least £3.9bn on diabetes services in 2010/11, equivalent to 4% of the NHS budget.
Auditors were also critical of variations in the quality of care offered to people with diabetes. Primary care trusts had not been effectively managed to provide the recommended standards of services. No PCT had provided all nine basic diabetes care processes to all people. The NAO estimates that 24,000 people are dying each year from diabetes-related causes that could be avoided.
NAO head Amyas Morse said: ‘The Department of Health has failed to deliver diabetes care to the standard it set out as long ago as 2001. This has resulted in people with diabetes developing avoidable complications, in high numbers of preventable deaths and in increased costs for the NHS.’
He added that the increasing prevalence of diabetes would have a ‘major impact’ on NHS resources unless the efficiency and effectiveness of services were improved.
Public Accounts Committee chair Margaret Hodge said it was ‘shocking’ that so many people were dying unnecessarily each year.
‘The department has now spent 11 years on this and yet it is still failing to deliver the standards of care it promised. As a result, patients’ quality of life is being diminished and money is being wasted,’ she said.
‘My committee will want the department to commit itself to improving its understanding and control of diabetes services, and set out what action it is going to take to ensure that we see much stronger improvements over the next few years.’
