Investing in diabetes care

Diabetes can lead to complications which have a huge human cost and are also very costly for the NHS. But these can be prevented by ensuring people living with diabetes can access the right care, at the right time and in the right place, to support them to live well.

We know that the majority of spending on diabetes in the NHS goes on treating these mostly preventable complications. To understand the current situation, we commissioned York Health Economics Consortium to produce up to date estimates of current and projected future costs of diabetes to the NHS. The findings of this work are published in Diabetic Medicine Journal.

Key findings:

The total cost of diabetes to the NHS in the UK is an estimated £10.7 billion with 60% of that spending on the costs of diabetes complications.

It is estimated that diabetes will cost the NHS nearly £18 billion by 2035 if prevalence continues to rise at the current rate.

A breakdown of the costs in England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland can be found here. Local health system level costs can be viewed for England, Scotland and Wales.