The UK government and NHS England have launched the biggest conversation about the NHS ever, to ‘help build a health service fit for the future’ and are asking members of the public, NHS staff and health experts to share their experiences, views and ideas for fixing the NHS.
The conversation will help to shape the government’s 10-year Health Plan which will be published in Spring 2025. With more than 5.6 million people living with diabetes in the UK it’s more important than ever that we tell the government that diabetes is serious.
The government has set out three major shifts it wants to see the NHS make: Sickness to Prevention, Hospital to Community, Analogue to Digital. These shifts were identified in response to Lord Ara Darzi’s Independent Investigation of the Nation Health Service in England, published in September 2024, which showed that the NHS requires significant reform to reduce the pressure on its services. We fed into this report, by sharing our findings on inequalities in diabetes care and the number of people with diabetes missing out on essential checks.
Find out more about Lord Darzi’s Report
We have been getting involved with the conversation to make sure that the government knows how important it is that everyone living with diabetes gets the care and support they need to live well. Two of our incredible Campaign Champions attended the launch event where they shared what it is like to live with diabetes. Diabetes UK will also be telling the government what these three shifts could mean for diabetes care:
Sickness to Prevention
Make sure everyone with diabetes receives all of their essential checks, which can help to prevent complications and detect them when they are most treatable.
Identify people at high risk of developing type 2 diabetes early and offer them support to prevent it.
Identify the 1.2 million people in the UK living with undiagnosed type 2 diabetes and make sure they can access care and support to live well with the condition.
Hospital to Community
Make sure people have the services they need close to home, including Diabetes Specialist Nurses, mental health support and peer support.
Make sure everyone living with diabetes is on the best technology and treatments for them, which would help to keep people well and reduce emergency hospital admissions.
Analogue to Digital
Everyone eligible for diabetes technology has access to it and can easily share the data from it with their healthcare team.
Make sure healthcare professionals have access to digital health records and test results in different settings to avoid repetition and wasted appointments.
How you can get involved
The NHS Change website has two ways that you can get involved directly: there is a survey where you can share your ideas and views about the best parts of the NHS, what the challenges are, and the three shifts the government wants to make. There is also a form for you to share your own experiences of healthcare in more detail.
Further details of how to get involved can be found on the government website:
We believe that everyone should have an opportunity to share their thoughts to help improve healthcare within the UK, and as part of our Diabetes is Serious campaign, we will keep you updated: sign up here.
