Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what recent estimate his Department has made of the number of people with diabetes from BAME groups who have died from covid-19.
Throughout the COVID-19 pandemic diabetes care has remained a priority and general practitioners (GPs) have supported patients with long term conditions to access care and support.
Trusts, working with GP practices, have been asked to ensure that every patient whose planned care has been disrupted by COVID-19 receives clear communication about how they will be looked after, and who to contact if their clinical circumstances change. The focus is on accelerating the return of non-COVID-19 health services to near-normal levels, including making full use of available capacity between now and winter, whilst also preparing for winter demand pressures. This will be done alongside continued vigilance against further COVID-19 spikes locally and possibly nationally.
The NHS England and NHS Improvement’s Diabetes Programme Team has helped to develop a COVID-19 risk prediction model to support shared decision making between clinicians and patients based on more accurate information as well as discussions on how to reduce risk of COVID-19 for all, including those with diabetes.
Reflecting the fact that those of black and south Asian background are at both greater risk of developing type 2 diabetes and of in-hospital COVID-19 mortality, NHS England and NHS Improvement have developed a focused marketing and promotion campaign, aimed at those who are black and south Asian. This work is supported by deep insight work commissioned from Cultural Intelligence Hub to develop approaches for communications and engagement activity targeted at black, Asian and minority ethnic communities.
The number of people with diabetes who died between 16 February and 12 October 2020 where COVID-19 was mentioned as a cause of death on the death certificate, by diabetes type and ethnicity is in the following table.
Ethnicity group | COVID-19 deaths where the person had type 1 diabetes | COVID-19 deaths where the person had type 2 or other diabetes |
Asian | 70 | 1,760 |
Black | 60 | 1,075 |
Mixed | 5 | 170 |
Other | 15 | 240 |
Not stated/known | 50 | 1,835 |
Coverage: England and Wales