Diabetes

Adrian Sanders Excerpts

Wednesday 8th September 2010 Commons Chamber

[Keith Vaz (Leicester East) (Lab)]

I am most grateful for the opportunity to raise in this House the very important issue of the prevention of diabetes. I must first declare my interest as a sufferer of type 2 diabetes. I was diagnosed with this condition when I was asked by my local GP to open a diabetes awareness day in my constituency. I attended, I was given a test, and I was telephoned the next day by my GP to inform me that I had type 2 diabetes.

Since 1996, the number of diabetes sufferers in the United Kingdom has risen from 1.4 million to 2.6 million, and it costs the NHS £1 million an hour. I believe it is vital that we stop this epidemic. Diabetes is an incurable metabolic condition that leads to high blood sugar levels, which can have serious consequences for short-term and long-term health. The hormone insulin, which is made by the pancreas, helps glucose to leave the blood and enter the body’s cells, where it is used for energy. People with diabetes experience raised blood sugar because insulin is not being produced by the pancreas or there is insufficient insulin or insulin action for the body’s needs.

As the House will know, there are two types of diabetes: type 1 and type 2. In the UK, 90% of adults with diabetes have type 2, where the pancreas produces insufficient quantities of insulin and/or the insulin has a reduced effect on the muscle and liver cells. Type 2 diabetes can be managed through healthy eating and regular exercise, but if the disease progresses, anti-diabetes tablets, incretins or insulin injections may need to be taken. In type 1 diabetes, the body does not produce insulin at all as a result of the body’s defence system attacking its insulin-producing cells. Treatment involves daily insulin injections, in conjunction with healthy eating and regular exercise. Type 1 diabetes is usually diagnosed in children or young adults. For the purpose of this debate, I will be referring largely to type 2 diabetes, which is, in my view, preventable, as opposed to type 1, which is not.

[Mr Adrian Sanders (Torbay) (LD)]

May I pay tribute to the right hon. Gentleman for securing this debate and for his support for the all-party group on diabetes? Some studies have shown that preventive action can put off the diagnosis even of type 1 diabetes, so he is speaking for all diabetics tonight.

[Keith Vaz]

I am most grateful to the hon. Gentleman for his intervention. I pay tribute to him for the work that he has done in this House as chair of the all-party group, which has made a profound difference to Parliament’s understanding of the issue. He is quite right—the research does indicate that. It is important that we take on board the very important research that is being done in this area, as he describes, and indeed pay tribute to the work of other organisations such as Diabetes UK, which has campaigned for so many years on the issue.

Diabetes is a ticking time bomb—a time bomb that needs to be defused. It is estimated that by 2025 more than 4 million people will suffer with diabetes. That will be a shocking increase in the numbers.

--- Later in debate ---

[Mr Burstow]

I will both consider it and hopefully have the opportunity to come back in next week’s debate and say a little more about it.

[Mr Sanders]

The right hon. Member for Knowsley (Mr Howarth) makes a very important point. There is also the role of pharmacists, who need to be aware of the symptoms that people might describe to them. There are also the opticians and chiropodists. Any number of health professional could be involved in a preventive campaign.

[Mr Burstow]

My hon. Friend is right, and I certainly pay tribute to him for his work as chair of the all-party group on diabetes. He has been a powerful advocate on these issues for many years. I applaud what he has done, and he is right—pharmacists and other health care professionals are part of what we need to do in order better to equip the whole service for detecting and intervening.

I was told that the right hon. Member for Leicester East was going to ask about extending the age range. That is an important point that needs to be discussed. At the moment, NHS Health Check starts at 40 and calls people every five years. The best clinical and most cost-effective case was made for doing it at that age. However, there is nothing to prevent primary care trusts from commissioning services that widen the age range. They should be considering that, particularly in areas with more susceptible populations, and clearly Leicester is one of those cases.