Conservative health spokesperson Miles Briggs has called for a more structured diabetes education programme across the country and is urging the Scottish Government to take a lead.
At the end of 2016 there were 291,981 people, 5.4% of the population, diagnosed with diabetes on local diabetes registrars.
Of this 291,981 people 257,728 of them have Type 2 diabetes. Lifestyle changes can have a significant benefit to managing and preventing diabetes.
In 2016/17 over £93 million was spent on diabetes drugs out of a total of over £1.1 billion for drugs across the whole of Scotland, 8% of the total, more than any other drugs.
There are Structured Diabetes Education courses that provide information and support to help people manage their diabetes.
SDE is the responsibility of individual health boards, however, disputes over whether SDE funding should be coming from primary care has led to decreased availability of SDE.
Reporting on Structured Diabetes Training is not always accurate due to the disjointed approach by the SNP government across each health board.
The Scottish Diabetes Survey 2016 shows that there is no uptake for Structured Diabetes Education for people in Lothian diagnosed with Type 2 diabetes (p120 measure 11).
This is despite Structured Diabetes Education being available and being utilised in Lothian.
Miles table a Parliamentary motion yesterday on the subject.
Lothian MSP Miles Briggs said: “Diabetes affects hundreds of thousands of people in Scotland with one in twenty Scots being diagnosed with diabetes. Everyone who is diagnosed with diabetes should be able to access Structured Diabetes Education, to help them better manage their condition.
“Lifestyle changes can be hugely beneficial to people with diabetes and significantly reduce their chances of health issues that are associated with having diabetes.
“It is irresponsible that the SNP government does not facilitate individual health boards in offering Structured Diabetes Education to all patients diagnosed with Diabetes. SNP Ministers need to do more to ensure that diabetes education is utilised across all health boards in Scotland.”
Tory Health Spokesperson Briggs lodged the following Motion at Holyrood yesterday:
Title: Structured Diabetes Education
Motion Text:
That the Parliament recognises the significant benefits that lifestyle can have in preventing type 2 diabetes and managing type 1 and type 2 diabetes; understands that approximately 5.4% of the population have diabetes; considers diabetes to be one of the largest health challenges in Scotland; understands that SIGN recommends that structured diabetes education should be made available to patients diagnosed with diabetes and that access to education resources is a key aim of the Diabetes Improvement Plan; further understands that the delivery of this education is the responsibility of individual NHS boards; notes concerns that the provision of structured diabetes education varies across boards and that uptake is very low in many areas, and hopes that NHS boards can work with all relevant stakeholders to increase the provision and uptake of structured diabetes education, which it considers is extremely important, highly beneficial to people with diabetes and has the potential to reduce the number of patients who go on to develop diabetes-associated complications and thus decrease pressures on NHS resources.
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