A national obesity crisis could see another two million people become diabetic in the next five years. The number of people with 'pre-diabetes' – those on the brink of type 2 diabetes and who must take urgent action – has leapt from an average of 1.3million to almost two million in only a year. Already a sixth of the entire NHS hospitals budget is spent treating those with diabetes, which affects an estimated record four million people in Britain, costing taxpayers £14billion a year. In 2018 hospitals spent £5.5billion caring for people with the condition, with some £3billion needed to treat diabetes complications such as kidney failure and sight loss.
The 'alarming' figures released by NHS England now show many more people in England have abnormally high blood sugar, which is likely to see them become diabetic too. More than 100,000 of them are under the age of 40, following warnings that type 2 diabetes is no longer a middle-aged disease. And all of them are a ticking timebomb, according to experts, who expect people with pre-diabetes to develop type 2 diabetes within around five years if they do not lose weight to reverse the process. The NHS began recording cases of pre-diabetes, also known as 'non-diabetic hyperglycaemia', two years ago, standing at 1.3million in 2017-18. The latest figures show 1,969,610 people registered with a GP in England in 2018-19 have the condition.
