Community pharmacy diabetes screening service could save NHS £50m each year – CCA report

A new report from the Company Chemists’ Association (CCA) is calling on NHS England to commission a community pharmacy–based national Type 2 diabetes
screening service, which could save the NHS £50m each year.

The CCA report, titled ‘Increasing Access to Diabetes Screening and Prevention Through Community Pharmacy’, highlights the urgent need for a national patient
pathway for diabetes detection and management.

It outlines how NHS-commissioned diabetes screening in community pharmacies across England could deliver numerous health benefits each year, including:

Screening 1.5 million adults and identifying 180,000 prediabetics;
Detecting 45,000 undiagnosed cases of diabetes and preventing them from developing serious complications
Preventing nearly 7,000 heart attacks and strokes, and thus improving patients’ quality of life
Avoiding severe sight loss in around 15,000 people over their lifetime
Saving the NHS £50 million annually by reducing diabetes-related costs.
Type 2 diabetes and its complications are currently estimated to account for 10 per cent of the NHS annual budget, and this figure is projected to rise
to 17 per cent by 2035/36.