Department of Health has failed to prioritise diabetes and allowed postcode lottery standards to prevail, claim MPs

The government’s efforts to deal with the growing problem of diabetes have failed so far to address variation in the standard of care across England, MPs have claimed.

The Department of Health, however, has defended its record and said it was dealing with a problem that was growing all the time and real improvements had been made.

During a fiery evidence session of the parliamentary public accounts committee inquiry into management of adult diabetes on 12 June, MPs on the committee accused witnesses from the department of failing to tackle diabetes sufficiently.

The inquiry was prompted by the National Audit Office report The management of adult diabetes services in the NHS1 published on 23 May, which said that despite …