Northerner
Admin (Retired)
- Relationship to Diabetes
- Type 1
DIABETICS in Stoke-on-Trent are receiving some of the worst care for the condition in Britain, according to national watchdogs.
An investigation by the National Audit Office (NAO) placed the city fourth from bottom in a league table of all 150 primary care trusts for the services it provides to help sufferers keep the disease under control.
'FAILINGS': Healthwatch's Ian Syme has called for action.
It found between 70 and 80 percent of the estimated 16,000 Potteries patients were at a bigger risk of complications such as blindness, limb amputations and liver damage because of the failings.
Meanwhile, just 20 PCTs were doing worse than the primary care trust for Newcastle and the Staffordshire Moorlands at keeping the illness in check, with between 55 and 60 percent of their 14,000 diabetics being let down by health services.
NAO officials say nationally the scandal has caused a high number of preventable deaths and increased costs for the NHS in having to treat the complications.
But the figures were challenged by city heath bosses who called them "misleading" as the inquiry had looked at different criteria than those used by GP practices.
http://www.thisisstaffordshire.co.uk/30-000-let-NHS-diabetes-care/story-16184674-detail/story.html
An investigation by the National Audit Office (NAO) placed the city fourth from bottom in a league table of all 150 primary care trusts for the services it provides to help sufferers keep the disease under control.
'FAILINGS': Healthwatch's Ian Syme has called for action.
It found between 70 and 80 percent of the estimated 16,000 Potteries patients were at a bigger risk of complications such as blindness, limb amputations and liver damage because of the failings.
Meanwhile, just 20 PCTs were doing worse than the primary care trust for Newcastle and the Staffordshire Moorlands at keeping the illness in check, with between 55 and 60 percent of their 14,000 diabetics being let down by health services.
NAO officials say nationally the scandal has caused a high number of preventable deaths and increased costs for the NHS in having to treat the complications.
But the figures were challenged by city heath bosses who called them "misleading" as the inquiry had looked at different criteria than those used by GP practices.
http://www.thisisstaffordshire.co.uk/30-000-let-NHS-diabetes-care/story-16184674-detail/story.html