Diabetes patients take up one in six hospital beds as they are treated for 200,000 complications every year, including amputation, heart attack and stroke.
This has risen from one in seven beds last year, or in some hospitals more than a quarter of beds. Diabetes costs the NHS £10 billion a year — a tenth of its budget — and about £8 billion is because of the complications of the disease.
Yesterday campaigners called for an end to a “postcode lottery” of diabetes care, under which patients in some areas receive much less support than others.
Baroness Young of Old Scone, the chief executive of Diabetes UK, said: “It is an absolute tragedy that there are almost 200,000 cases a year of debilitating and life-threatening diabetes complications such as heart attacks, amputations and stroke that could be prevented with better care and support.
“These complications have a devastating impact on people’s lives and are fuelling the high death rate in people with the condition, as well as meaning huge and often unnecessary costs to the NHS.” Other complications include angina, heart failure and a life-threatening condition known as diabetic ketoacidosis.
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Lady Young said the high rate of complications may put the sustainability of the health service at risk. There are believed to be 3.9 million people in Britain with diabetes and the number is projected to reach five million within ten years.
About 10 per cent of these have type 1 diabetes, which is not linked to obesity and is not preventable. Type 2 diabetes is linked to obesity and can be helped in part by changing diet.
“With the number of people with diabetes rising at an alarming rate, it is vital that the government and the NHS act urgently,” Lady Young said.
“In particular, the NHS must get better at giving people with diabetes the education they need to take control of their condition, and ensuring that everyone with the condition is getting their essential health checks.”
Every week more than 100 people have an amputation because of diabetic complications.
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Some 18,110 heart attacks and 21,712 strokes a year can be attributed to the disease.