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NHS Diabetes Press Release: Inpatient diabetes – £600 million excess outlay could be reduced with specialist care
NHS Diabetes is today calling for more investment in specialist diabetes care to reduce the estimated £600 million excess spend on treating diabetes in hospitals identified in a new report.
People with diabetes are more likely to be admitted to hospital and have longer stays than people of the same age without the condition.
The research, titled ‘Inpatient Care for People with Diabetes: The Economic Case for Change (PDF 10.5MB)', found that the NHS in England spends more than £2.3 billion a year[1] on inpatient care for people with diabetes. That’s 11% of NHS inpatient care expenditure.
About £600 million of this outlay is estimated to be excess expenditure on diabetes – that is, over and above the sum spent on a population of the same age and gender without the condition. Inpatient care for someone with diabetes costs the NHS 35% more a year than care for someone of the same age without diabetes.
In spite of these high levels of expenditure, the report presents evidence that diabetes inpatient care is poor in many areas. Specialist diabetes inpatient teams can improve outcomes for patients and generate savings that substantially outweigh the cost of such teams.
The findings have led NHS Diabetes Director Anna Morton to call for more investment in specialist diabetes teams. She said: “There is cause for concern about the quality of inpatient care and people with diabetes frequently experience avoidable complications while in hospital.
“If people with diabetes are admitted to hospital, care from diabetes specialist nurses reduces problems and shortens lengths of stay. Unnecessary hospital admissions and lengths of stay do not only increase costs, more importantly they cause great distress for patients.”
- Download the full press release: NHS Diabetes press release (Word 98KB)
- Download the report: Inpatient Care for People with Diabetes: The Economic Case for Change (PDF 10.5MB)
- Download the factsheet: Inpatient Care for People with Diabetes: The Economic Case for Change Factsheet (PDF 180.5KB)
[1] The £2.3 billion figure covers the costs of treating people with diabetes in hospitals irrespective of the condition which they were admitted for.
