Simon’s role within Diabetes UK is to ensure that people with diabetes, and the health care professionals who work with them, are kept informed about all aspects of diabetes care so that they can make informed choices about their treatment. Simon spoke about the action being taken to prevent patients with diabetes moving into renal failure. He described the two types of diabetes – type 1 and 2. There was a diabetes NSF and there is NICE guidance. Diabetes UK magazine had a readership of around 500,000 and produced information for the newly diagnosed. It is trying to get to every PCT in the country. They also point people to the NKF and the leaflet it produces. Around 80% of people with diabetes are treated in primary care, but unfortunately not all GP’s or the nurses who run the clinics are diabetes specialists. Diabetes UK spends about £5 million a year on research and about £500,000 of that is spent just on education. There is an International Diabetes Federation and a very active European one.

More importantly we actually deal with the condition, we have a telephone help line, which takes about 40,000 enquiries every year from people with diabetes. We also support our 180,000 members with regular publications and events. Much as you, we lobby Government and local health bodies to ensure that the best care for people with diabetes is delivered.

To sum up Diabetes UK is already doing a lot to prevent its members becoming your members. There is a still a great need for better education, better communication and putting the individual at the centre of their care. We have got the basics in place -we need to have better working relationships

Please note, this page is a summary of the full conference speech (click here for the full transcript).

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