Diabetes-related Complications

Debate between Chris Evans and Justin Madders

Tuesday 7th June 2016 Westminster Hall

[Justin Madders (Ellesmere Port and Neston) (Lab)]

I congratulate my hon. Friend the Member for Dewsbury (Paula Sherriff) on securing this important debate and on the eloquent and powerful way she set out the issues in her opening speech. Several hon. Members have echoed what she said, and I will no doubt repeat it to an extent. After just a year as an MP she has established herself as one of the most effective campaigners in this place, and she is a passionate advocate on a range of issues—particularly public health matters. She spoke of her visit to King’s College with my hon. Friend the Member for Heywood and Middleton (Liz McInnes), and described the excellent care there, as well as mentioning the fact that, sadly, that experience is not replicated throughout the country. She highlighted the cost of diabetes and described education as a missed opportunity to reduce complications. That is a theme that has come through in several of the contributions today.

I also want to mention the contribution from the hon. Member for St Ives (Derek Thomas), who made a powerful point about what kind of future the next generation is heading towards, if we do not put more focus on the issue now. He gave us constituency-specific figures on amputations. I wonder whether all hon. Members would be interested to find out the specific figures for their constituencies. They really bring the issue home. I agree with the hon. Gentleman that the matter should not just be left to CCGs, and that there is a need for more co-ordinated national support. He was also right to say that we should aim to reach the point where amputation is seen as a failure and an exception.

My hon. Friend the Member for Islwyn (Chris Evans)—I hope that is the right pronunciation of his constituency—

[Chris Evans]

Someone once said it as “insulin”.

[Justin Madders]

We could have been forgiven for making that error today, but we will talk more about pronunciation afterwards. My hon. Friend spoke with great sincerity about the benefits for children of taking part in sport, and about how once they get into it they can enjoy the physical activity. I know from experience that dragging kids off the Xbox can be a difficult challenge, but once they actually get out there they enjoy themselves, and that contributes to a healthier lifestyle. He also made a valuable point about the world of work, in that so many more jobs are now sedentary in their nature. Of course, a healthy workforce is a more productive one, and productivity is a challenge for the whole country.

My hon. Friend the Member for Heywood and Middleton spoke with great experience of health. It was great to hear that she had been inspired by her visit to King’s College. She spoke about the national diabetes audit, and the importance of using the data collected to drive improvements. Again, she highlighted the need for more education. It was interesting to hear that some of her constituents have difficulty attending some education courses because employers are not agreeing to give them the time off. It will be interesting to hear the Minister’s reflections on that and it comes back to the point about a healthy workforce being a more productive one. We really need to get that message across to employers.

The hon. Member for Inverclyde (Ronnie Cowan) spoke about his family’s experience and gave us a useful personal insight into the everyday challenges faced. We can all reel off the figures but hearing from someone who has had a close relationship with the condition for a considerable length of time brings home some of the practical challenges that people face.

There is a consensus, as the hon. Member for Linlithgow and East Falkirk (Martyn Day) said. All hon. Members acknowledge that diabetes is one of the most significant healthcare challenges, given the impact that it has on NHS resources and, more importantly, the impact it has on people. We heard very powerful details of that today.

To put the condition in perspective statistically, 45 people in the UK will have been diagnosed with diabetes in the time it takes to complete today’s debate. In that time, one person will have undergone a diabetes-related amputation and four people will have died prematurely due to diabetes-related complications. According to figures produced by Diabetes UK, there are currently 4 million people living with diabetes in the UK, of whom 549,000 are undiagnosed.

The number of people with diabetes is increasing, as various hon. Members have said, and it has more than doubled since 1996. More than doubling the number of people with any condition in 20 years is bound to lead to serious questions about how our society is operating. Indeed, several hon. Members have given some good examples of the challenges we face. Part of our role is to question and support, where possible, how the Government respond to those challenges, particularly when we are talking about something that can be preventable. The level of interest shown by hon. Members today shows that there is at least recognition and agreement that the issue demands significant attention.

The number of people with a diagnosis is huge, as is the cost to the health service. The NHS now spends about £10 billion on diabetes each year, which is equivalent to about 10% of its budget, and £8 billion of that is estimated to be spent on complications, which, as we have discussed, are largely avoidable. Diabetes is an important issue to tackle at any time but, when we have such financial pressures on the NHS, it becomes even more pressing to really get on top of trying to avoid the complications it can cause.

At the heart of the issue are the people involved. Although many are able to manage their diabetes effectively, it is still a life-changing condition that has an impact on those living with it on a daily basis. We heard from the hon. Member for Inverclyde about how it really has an impact not only on the individual, but on their family. For somebody with type 2 diabetes, managing their condition means learning how to treat it with diet and exercise, and possibility coming to terms with the need to take medication and insulin. For someone with type 1 diabetes, it means constant diet management and carefully working out the correct amount of insulin to take. However, for everyone living with diabetes, it means being aware of the potential complications that can occur, and keeping a careful watch not only on blood glucose levels, but on cholesterol, weight, blood pressure and the conditions of eyes and feet.

Put simply, living with diabetes means becoming an expert on the condition. Despite that, less than 2% of newly diagnosed individuals with type 1 diabetes, and just 5.9% of those newly diagnosed with type 2 diabetes, attend a diabetes education course, which is a theme that has been mentioned by various hon. Members. Those figures alone are disappointing, but they are even more so given that there is clear evidence that the courses reduce the risk of individuals developing complications, and given the fact that a worrying 69% of people say that they do not fully understand their diabetes. The very nature of the condition means that self-management is the only practical way to reduce the risk of complications.

We welcome the publication of the Government’s new improvement and assessment framework for CCGs, which will assess CCGs on the attendance of structured education schemes and on the NICE recommended treatment targets. Will the Minister tell us what steps the Government are taking to improve access to diabetes self-management education, what steps she envisages taking against CCGs that perform poorly in the improvement assessment framework, and what support will be available to those identified as poor performers in order to bring them up to what is considered best practice?