The NHS is spending £6bn a year on diabetes-related complications such as amputations and blindness, an alarming report reveals.
Diabetes UK warns that many problems can be avoided and calls on the health service to shift its focus “from crisis to preventative care”.
The charity says this would reduce harm to patients living with the condition and reduce extraordinarily high costs.
Diabetes UK estimates that more than 4.4 million people in the UK are living with diabetes, and a further 1.2 million could have undiagnosed type 2 diabetes, which is linked to obesity.
Every week, diabetes causes 2,990 cases of heart failure, more than 930 strokes, 660 heart attacks and 184 amputations.
Kim Steer, 56, from Yeovil, Somerset, was diagnosed with type 1 diabetes when she was 19. She has diabetic retinopathy, an eye disease that develops if blood glucose levels and blood pressure are consistently high.
Almost 4.3 million people were living with diabetes in 2021/22, according to the latest UK figures. And another 850,000 people have diabetes and are completely unaware of it, which is worrying because untreated type 2 diabetes can lead to complications such as heart disease and stroke.
To reduce the risk of complications, patients should self-manage their condition with regular support from healthcare professionals.
However, 1.6 million people with diabetes in England did not receive the eight checks they were entitled to in 2022/23, figures show.
New research commissioned by Diabetes UK, and carried out by economists at the University of York, estimates that the direct cost of diabetes to the NHS was £10.7 billion in 2021/22.
This was equivalent to 6 per cent of the UK’s total health budget, up from £9.8 billion in 2012.
About 80 percent of these costs were due to diabetes-related complications such as kidney, eye, circulatory problems, and nerve damage in 2012.
Improvements in blood sugar control reduced this figure to 60 per cent in 2021, the latest year available, but it still means the NHS is spending £6.2 billion a year on “potentially preventable complications”, Diabetes UK said. .
The rest, around £4.4bn, was spent on diagnostics, GP appointments, eye tests, blood tests, medication, support programs and a team of diabetes specialists.
The academics urged health officials to “continue to invest in diabetes prevention, care and treatment to reduce the future costs of complications with population-level interventions in addition to individual approaches.”
And they warned that the total annual cost to the NHS could rise to £18 billion by 2035 if action is not taken to reduce the number of people developing type 2 diabetes and improve outcomes for all those living with the disease.
Colette Marshall, chief executive of Diabetes UK, said the research “paints a bleak picture”.
“These complications cause untold hardship to thousands of people and, in most cases, can be prevented with proper care,” he added. “Receiving the right care for people with diabetes can save limbs, eyesight and lives.”
“But despite some progress, there are still too many people left out and too many developing diabetes complications.
“Shifting the focus from the crisis to preventative care would help reduce the harm caused by diabetes, allowing people with the condition to live well and ultimately reducing healthcare costs.”
Last year, academics said diabetes cases are likely to “grow aggressively” in all countries and among all age groups.
An article published in the journal Lancet Diabetes and Endocrinology states that by 2050, about 1.3 billion people will have diabetes, more than double the 529 million cases in 2021.
Earlier this month, NHS England chief executive Amanda Pritchard said the number of people under 40 at risk of developing type 2 diabetes increased by a quarter last year.
The latest National Diabetes Audit found that 3.6 million patients registered with a GP had prediabetes (when blood sugar is above the normal range, but not high enough to be diagnosed with the condition ) in 2023.
This is an increase of 549,000, or 18 percent, from the previous 12 months.
The figure increased almost a quarter in those under 40 years of age, from 173,166 in 2022 to 216,440 last year.
Nick Hex, associate director for the NHS and public sector at the York Health Economics Consortium, said: “Diabetes is a serious and debilitating disease that affects people every day on many different levels.
‘It remains very expensive for the NHS, and most of those costs are still spent on potentially preventable complications.
“Increased investment in new medicines and technologies that help people better manage their disease contributes to some of today’s high costs, but the rise in type 2 diabetes among those under 40 is of particular concern and “There is a need to continue focusing on prevention strategies.”