The Courier & Advertiser (Angus and Dundee)

Diabetes prescripti­ons costing £1bn per year

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Prescripti­ons for diabetics are now costing the NHS in England more than £1 billion a year, new figures show.

NHS Digital said the “total net ingredient” cost of prescripti­ons for diabetes was £1,012.4 million in 2017/18, up from £983.7m a year earlier.

Almost one in 20 (4.9%) prescripti­ons written by GPs are for diabetes treatments.

They make up more than a 10th (11.4%) of total primary care net ingredient costs.

The figure is a significan­t increase on the number of diabetic treatments prescribed a decade ago – including insulins, antidiabet­ic drugs, and diagnostic­s and monitoring devices.

In 2007/8 there were 30.8 million prescripti­on items for diabetes.

The biggest recent increases can be seen in treatments for Type 2 diabetes, which affects around 90% of patients.

Almost 3.7 million people have been diagnosed with diabetes in the

UK, according to Diabetes UK, while it is estimated that more than five million people will have the condition by 2025.

Professor Jonathan Valabhji, national clinical director for diabetes at NHS England, said: “The NHS Diabetes Prevention Programme has now reached over a quarter of a million people at high risk of Type 2 diabetes.”

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