Diabetes crisis: Cost of treating obesity-fuelled conditions could ‘overwhelm NHS’

Treating lifestyle-driven Type 2 diabetes and the health complications it causes cost £10bn a year – equivalent to £1 in every £10 in the cash-strapped NHS coffers.

More than four million people are now blighted by the disease with chronically unhealthy lives putting a further 12 million at risk.

The shocking statistics about the effects of Britain’s obesity crisis means 25 per cent of the population now has, or is at risk of, an illness that can lead to blindness, amputation, heart and kidney disease, stroke and death.

Robin Hewings, of Diabetes UK, said: “Halting the rise of Type 2 is one of the greatest challenges facing the NHS. In just 10 years the number of people living with the condition has rocketed, seeing the cost of treating it reach an estimated £1 million every hour.

“Close to 12 million people across the UK are currently at increased risk of developing Type 2 and it is worrying that most of them don’t even realise it.”

A staggering 52 million prescriptions were issued last year – a rise of 81 per cent over the past decade.

Type 1 diabetes sees the body automatically destroy its own insulin-producing cells but Type 2 is largely brought on by lifestyle.

Cases have spiralled out of control as a result of our obsession with sugary snacks which has fuelled an obesity epidemic gripping the country.

But experts say the majority of cases are preventable with simple changes to diet and getting more exercise dramatically reducing the chances of being struck down.

Professor Melanie Davies, an international expert on Type 2, said: “Unless we change our thinking the condition is going to overwhelm the NHS.

Patient Chris Chapman, who set up the diabetes blood glucose monitoring company GlucoRx, said: “The cost of obesity and its consequences like Type 2 diabetes are threatening to engulf the NHS.”

Last year NHS England launched a Diabetes Prevention Programme, offering advice on healthy eating and lifestyle, weight-loss techniques and exercise programmes.

But even though people are entitled to free checks, take-up is low and millions are missing out.

Obesity is the single biggest aggravating factor for those with Type 2. A decade ago the cost of drugs prescribed to combat Britain’s obesity crisis was £513.9m.

In contrast latest figures show there were 78,195 hip replacement operations in England in 2014/15 costing around £900 million. Health chiefs have proposed rationing surgery to those suffering the most pain.

“These figures demonstrate Type 2 diabetes is considerably worse and eats up 10 per cent of the entire NHS budget while the NHS itself admits obesity cost the country £27 billion annually.”

Consultant vascular surgeon Martin Claridge said: “I am worried. The NHS will have to decide what conditions it does or does not treat and that is a very difficult decision to make.

“All aspects of health care affected by Type 2 are straining at the seams trying to manage this increasing number of patients with complications.”

A decade ago there was not one child in Britain with Type 2 but now there are more than 500 with the disease. Nine in 10 sufferers are overweight or obese.

They do not produce enough insulin or the insulin they produce does not work properly. Resulting high blood sugar clogs up arteries and veins which can lead to deadly complications.

The number of adults with the disease has risen by 1.5 million in the past 10 years with GPs in England now reporting 3.6 million patients aged 17 and older on their records.

Each day in Britain 65 people die prematurely from diabetes while hundreds more battle life-changing complications. Every day 203 diabetics suffer heart failure, 78 have strokes, 39 people need dialysis or kidney transplants and 20 people have legs amputated.

To calculate your risk of developing Type 2 visit www.diabetes.org.uk