In July, we launched our ‘Diabetes Is Serious’ campaign, with a report highlighting the barriers people with diabetes in England have faced to getting the quality care and support they have needed during the coronavirus pandemic. It also outlined ways to improve care more widely.
This week, we’re expanding our campaign across the UK, releasing new reports about the diabetes landscape in Wales and Northern Ireland. We’re also working on launching in Scotland in the near future. Here’s an update on Diabetes is Serious across the UK, and what you can do to help UK governments understand there’s more to be done to put diabetes care, support and prevention at the top of their agenda:
Wales
This week, our team in Wales have released their Diabetes Can’t Wait report, outlining how diabetes care has been impacted by the coronavirus pandemic. Unsurprisingly, there are still thousands of people with diabetes in Wales who are waiting on essential diabetes checks, and many haven’t heard from their diabetes teams at all.
We’ve been making sure Welsh Members of the Senedd (MSs) understand that this needs to change at an event in the Senedd this week. This has been a vital opportunity to put diabetes on their agenda, and for the Welsh Government to invest in diabetes care, support and prevention.
Going forward, we’ll be pressing MSs to make this happen, and you can support us too by emailing your local MS. We’ve prepared a template for you to send, and you can add your own experiences if you like, to ask your MS to support our campaign and write to the Health Secretary, Baroness Morgan.
Northern Ireland
Just like our team in Cardiff, our team in Northern Ireland have also released their own Diabetes is Serious report. It paints an equally worrying picture, with reports of missed appointments, fears about diabetes management and a large number of people who experienced poor mental health during the pandemic.
We know this isn’t good enough, and so we’ve been taking your concerns directly to MLAs at Stormont, with an event on the back of World Diabetes Day.
We’re pleased that decision-makers are taking the disruptions to diabetes care in Northern Ireland seriously, but we need to continue to press them to take concrete action. You can help us do that by contacting your MLAs, asking them to support our campaign and meet with us.
England
In England, we launched our Diabetes is Serious campaign in July. Since then, over 12,500 of you have signed our open letter to Sajid Javid, the Health Secretary. Thousands more have also written to your MP, or signed our welcome card to the new Chief Executive of NHS England, Amanda Pritchard.
Your support has meant we’re catching the attention of decision makers across the country, and we’ve been busy meeting MPs to make sure they understand that diabetes care needs to be one of the Government’s top priorities.
We’re planning our the next phase of the campaign, and we want you to be a key part of this. Sign up here to keep up to date with our campaigning news, so you can be the first to know how to support our Diabetes is Serious campaign.
Scotland
Our team in Scotland are currently working hard, writing a report into how diabetes care and support has been impacted by the coronavirus pandemic. We’ll be launching this report soon, as we are waiting for the release of the most up-to-date data to make sure our asks of the Scottish Government are based on the latest evidence.
We know that to have the greatest impact, we’ll need your help. If you live in Scotland, please sign up to be the first to know about our upcoming report, and how we can take action together to fight for better diabetes care.
