Medway to launch type 2 diabetes prevention pilot
A programme designed to help reduce the four million people in England expected to have type 2 diabetes by 2025 is to be launched in Medway.
The National NHS Diabetes Prevention Programme (NHS DPP) is a joint venture between NHS England, Public Health England (PHE) and Diabetes UK.
The Medway Clinical Commissioning Group (CCG) and Medway Council have been chosen to test the programme initially targeting 10,000 people, before it is rolled out nationally, along with six other places.
The other sites include Birmingham South and Central CCG, Bradford City CCG, Durham County Council, Herefordshire CCG/LA, Salford CCG/LA and Southwark Council and CCG.
The demonstrator sites were selected to co-design the service model and provide support in developing and implementing the national programme.
In particular they will provide local perspectives on the service model, including potential barriers and facilitators to implementation, strategies for the recruitment and retention of at risk individuals and alignment of the NHS DPP with existing services.
The NHS DPP will also test innovative ways to pinpoint those people who have a high risk of developing type 2 diabetes and refer them into an evidence-based behavioural intervention to help them reduce their risk.
This innovative programme is putting ‘evidence into action’ on the ground
The £134,000 pilot scheme offers the Trust’s 10,000 staff an opportunity to access expert help from a range of dieticians, clinicians and the weight-management company MoreLife.
Well-designed randomised controlled trials in Finland, the USA, Japan, China and India show 30-60 per cent reductions in type 2 diabetes incidence over three years in adults at high risk through intensive lifestyle change programme interventions.
Obesity prevention
If the national programme in England can replicate the same results, it could save tens of thousands of lives in the future and millions of pounds for the NHS.
In March when the announcement about the programme was made, Simon Stevens, NHS England Chief Executive, said: “It’s time for the NHS to start practising what we preach. The NHS already spends an estimated £10 billion a year on potentially avoidable illnesses, and the human toll is more than 100 amputations a week and around 20,000 early deaths every year.
“Yet for over a decade we’ve known that obesity prevention cuts diabetes and saves lives. If these results were from a pill we’d doubtless be popping it, but instead this programme succeeds by supporting people to lose weight, exercise and eat better.
“So today we commit to becoming the most successful country on the planet at implementing this evidence-based national diabetes prevention programme.”
PHE Chief Executive Duncan Selbie said: “This innovative programme is putting ‘evidence into action’ on the ground. Despite type 2 diabetes being largely preventable, 2.5 million people in England already have the disease with another 9.6m at high risk of developing it and this cannot be ignored.”
Barbara Young, Chief Executive of Diabetes UK, said: “We are delighted to be a part of the National Diabetes Prevention Programme and welcome the fact that people most at risk of developing type 2 diabetes will be given the opportunity to help them reduce that risk. By making this investment now thousands of people over the next 12 months could successfully avoid or delay type 2 diabetes and when this is rolled out nationwide the results could be even more spectacular.
“This is a real step change in terms of highlighting the seriousness with which type 2 diabetes is viewed and we feel this prevention programme is hugely significant. We hope this will also send a clear message that still more needs to be done going forward to help people lead healthy lifestyles from the beginning to the ends of their lives.”