Taxpayers ‘overpaying’ for diabetes treatment

TAXPAYERS could save up to €3,000 per year on treating a patient with diabetes if the disease was better controlled, a leading medic has claimed.

Currently, three out of four diabetics are failing to reach their target blood sugar levels and are at risk of developing serious complications such as heart disease, kidney problems and blindness.

Consultant endocrinologist Dr Graham Roberts believes that if diabetes is treated properly almost all of the complications associated with the disease could be prevented.

“Two out three people with diabetes will die of heart disease or stroke, conditions that are almost entirely preventable,” said Dr Roberts.

About 200,000 adults in Ireland have diabetes and the number of people with the most common form (type 2 diabetes) is increasing rapidly.

Dr Roberts said people with diabetes who were developing complications and dying younger were a huge drain on the State’s coffers.

He said there was good data to show that it cost between €1,000 to €1,500 per year of life to properly manage the condition, while ignoring the problem, as we seemed to be doing in Ireland, was costing about €4,500 to €5,000.

“In other words, as taxpayers we are paying out €3,000 or more too much each year and the person with diabetes is suffering and dying young. Nobody is happy,” he said.

There was also very strong evidence to suggest that up to 20% of hospital beds were used to treat people with diabetes, beds that could be freed up if the condition was better treated.

The doctor was surprised that a new Ipsos MORI survey of 100 people with type 2 diabetes found that just one in four felt the disease was not properly controlled.

He said that most consultants believed at least three of four people with diabetes were not reaching their target blood/sugar level.

The study also found only 15% of people with the disease understood a HB1C test was used to determine sugar levels in the blood.

Dr Roberts said the blood test was key to anyone understanding diabetes.

“So we have three out of four people in Ireland thinking that their diabetes is controlled and almost 90% claiming to know their blood sugar target when, in fact, only one in four is well controlled,” he said.

The consultant was involved in the trial of a new once-daily oral treatment for people with type 2 diabetes. The prescription drug called Januvia was launched in Ireland yesterday by Merck Sharp and Dohme Ireland (Human Health) Limited. Dr Roberts said the drug was a welcome treatment option that effectively lowered blood sugar when it was too high without side effects, such as low blood sugar and weight gain.