Less than half of people living with type 2 diabetes (T2D) in England received all 8 health checks recommended by NICE, according to the latest figures from the National Diabetes Audit for 2021-22.
Only 48% of patients with T2D received the 8 care processes, an improvement from the previous year, but still well below the 58% of patients who had these checks in 2019-20, before the pandemic. Of equal concern, one in ten people with either type 1 diabetes or T2D no health checks at all.
The care processes with the greatest drop from 2019-20 to 2020-21 were blood pressure (BP), BMI and foot risk surveillance. Across the last five years, urine albumin/creatinine ratio was the lowest performer.
There has been a downward trend in achievement of both BP and HbA1c treatment targets when compared to the first pandemic year. In 2019-20 65.6% achieved their HbA1c treatment targets, decreasing to 63.4% in 2020-21, and then to 63.1% in 2020-21.
