Diabetics failing to get free checks

Fewer than six out of every 10 people with diabetes are signing up for their free annual check-up.

Support group Diabetes New Zealand says the state-funded programme should be reaching 80 per cent of diagnosed diabetics, up from 33 per cent in its first year, 2001.

"We don't think this is good enough," president Murray Dear said last night.

"If people are not availing themselves of Get Checked, they may not be aware that their blood glucose level is not as controlled as it should be.

"They may not be receiving access to medication ... to prevent long-term complications."

These could include limb amputation, kidney failure, heart disease and blindness.

Mr Dear said the number of people on the Get Checked programme whose eyes had been checked for diabetic complications increased only 2 percentage points, to 66 per cent, in the past four years.

And the percentage with poor blood-glucose levels had remained at 29 per cent.

The figures are contained in Diabetes New Zealand's diabetes scorecard, which it released to coincide with World Diabetes Day.

An estimated 170 million people worldwide have diabetes - including 124,000 New Zealanders - and the number is expected to double by 2030.

The World Health Organisation says too many people are losing lower limbs to diabetes complications because they are not receiving proper care.

Diabetes is a shortage or absence of insulin, or an inability of the body to use it properly. Insulin is involved in processing glucose in the blood.

In central Auckland, clinics aligned to primary health organisation Procare are likely to give free checks to just 35 per cent of their diagnosed diabetics this year, based on figures for the first six months.

Auckland District Health Board spokesman Dr Allan Pelkowitz said Procare was reaching 77 per cent of Pacific people, but its figures for Maori, Pakeha and others were of concern. He expected they would improve because of new programmes it was introducing.

Pacific Islanders and Maori have twice the incidence of diabetes than Pakeha.

Procare medical director Dr John Cameron said its patients were still having their illness well managed.

A number of Procare clinics did not offer Get Checked because they considered the Auckland health board's funding - about $50 from the board and another $10 to $15 from Procare reserves - too little for nurse/GP consultations that could take up to 45 minutes.

The Get Checked programme was about gathering data: whether a patient's blood-glucose level was within the guidelines, if they had their eyes checked for diabetes-related problems, if their feet, their cholesterol level and their blood pressure had been checked.

All these things could be, and were, done at other visits.

The Health Ministry's chief clinical adviser, Dr Sandy Dawson, said the proportion of diagnosed diabetics having the free annual check had risen each year.