Wellbeing boards are 'missing a chance' to tackle diabetes

NHS organisations are "missing an opportunity" to tackle the tide of diabetes, a charity has warned.

Diabetes UK said some health and wellbeing boards, which were set up under the recent NHS reforms, were risking overlooking the need to improve diabetes care.

The boards are responsible for improving the health and wellbeing for people in their regions as well as reducing health inequalities.

The charity said that the quality of policies in relation to diabetes "varied considerably" among 20 of the boards with some giving "no prominence to diabetes at all".

The need to improve management of the condition was "often absent" from the policies, the charity said, and more than half of boards were "failing" to translate national guidance into local action.

The charity's research suggested that many strategies did not clearly distinguish between type 1 and type 2 diabetes. Diabetes UK estimates that 3.8 million people have diabetes including 850,000 people who have type 2 diabetes but do not know it.