How the UAE and UK are joining forces to fight type 2 diabetes

The United Kingdom and the UAE have a joint mission to tackle the great global health challenges of our age. In an era where longterm health conditions take 70 per cent of our health care budget, prevention is more important than ever. Chief among these challenges is diabetes.

This has been highlighted in the UAE Vision 2021 and the UK National Health Service’s (NHS) Five Year Forward View. In the Middle East, 24 per cent of people – almost a quarter of the population – are living with diabetes. And it is a growing problem in England, too, with three million people estimated to have the disease and a further seven million at risk.

But we have a strong ambition to tackle this. The NHS Five Year Forward View sets out our plans to be the first country to put a national diabetes prevention plan in place. This aims to reduce the numbers of people at risk of diabetes from developing the disease – and progress is already being made.

The NHS diabetes prevention plan is based on using lifestyle interventions for the prevention of type 2 diabetes. Our evidence suggests that the incidence of type 2 diabetes was reduced by 26 per cent when using diabetes prevention intervention compared with usual care. This was accompanied by an average weight loss after 12-18 months of 2.46 kilograms. We expect the programme to prevent or delay 24,000 cases over its first five years, supporting 390,000 people. This is equivalent to health savings of approximately £1.2 billion (Dh5.52bn). With these savings it means that the programme would be lowering costs, including the costs of running the programme, by year 14.

Arab Health is the region’s largest gathering of health care and trade professionals where more than 4,000 companies from over 70 countries will be exhibiting. I am pleased to be using this platform to launch our innovative international NHS diabetes prevention programme, to help people across the Gulf to lead healthier lifestyles. I will be attending Arab Health alongside Lord Kakkar, the UK’s business ambassador for health care and life sciences, and over 200 UK companies.

This is just one example of where we can work together. Innovators from the UK are already supporting UAE health care aims. Moorfields Eye Hospital London has centres of excellence in Dubai and Abu Dhabi, and recently moved its Dubai paediatric service to Al Jalila Children’s Hospital. The Imperial College London Diabetes Centre operates in two locations in the UAE: Abu Dhabi with two clinics and Al Ain with one clinic. Kings College Hospital Clinics provide specialist services in Abu Dhabi and plan to open a clinic in Dubai in September and a hospital next year. The South London and Maudsley NHS Foundation Trust works to achieve the best possible outcomes for children and young people with mental health problems living in the Middle East. Building on the success of this service, it has recently opened an adult mental health clinic.

This is all evidence that the Gulf matters to the UK. UK exports to the Gulf in 2014 were £18.6bn (the UAE is the UK’s fourth largest market outside Europe), and the UAE alone is already home to more than 5,000 UK companies.

As we look to build the Global Britain that the prime minister. Theresa May, described this month, we want to ensure that we have a strong forum for open communication to discuss our future trading relationship with the GCC. We have agreed to create a joint working group to discuss the detail of our future relationship and drive progress towards building the closest possible commercial and economic relationship when the UK has left the EU.

Our prime minister reaffirmed the UK’s commitment to the Gulf at last month’s GCC Summit. We agreed to jointly launch the GCC-UK Strategic Partnership to foster closer relations in all fields, and develop collective approaches to regional issues to advance our shared interests in stability and prosperity.

We want to create a culture of mutual learning and sharing of experiences with our UAE partners. While just one of the aims of this cooperation is to reduce diabetes prevalence both in the UK and in the GCC, I’m looking forward to taking this opportunity to strengthen ties between our great nations and to share knowledge on health care and diabetes prevention.

Together, we can get one step closer to ending the diabetes epidemic once and for all.

‘ We expect the programme to prevent or delay 24,000 cases over its first five years, supporting 390,000 people.

Nicola Blackwood MP is parliamentary under secretary of state at the UK department of health