NEWS
A FOOD FIGHT
WORTH HAVING
£40M FUNDING FOR DIABETES
Diabetes UK is soon to take an important
message to government, that food labelling
needs to be clear and simple for everyone,
something that matters a lot to people living
with diabetes. In order to add weight to it's
argument, Diabetes UK is trying to get as
many signatures as possible via a petition.
The Food Upfront campaign aims to
help everyone make healthy and informed
choices about the food they eat.
For people living with diabetes, this lack
of clear and consistent labelling is making
it harder to manage their control on a dayto-day basis.
It's also making it harder for
everyone, with or without diabetes, to stay
healthy, so it's good for everyone.
Sign the Food Upfront petition for clear,
consistent and compulsory food labelling
including: front-of-pack traffic light labelling
on all pre-packaged foods sold in the UK;
Calorie labelling in key restaurants, cafes
and takeaways, with carbohydrate content
available online or when requested in
store, as well as carbohydrate content
labelling on products per portion or per
individual unit as prepared (how much
easier would that make things!).
If you think this makes sense, sign
the petition and let's get things moving!
Simon Stevens, CEO of NHS England,
announced at the Diabetes UK Professional
Conference held in mid-March that £40m
will be available for the second year of
transformation funding. Chris Askew, Chief
Executive of Diabetes UK commented,
"We'd hoped to have confirmation that this
funding would continue, and enable local
services to continue making improvements
to the care they provide, so today's
announcement is great news for people
living with diabetes.
"This news means that local areas can
continue building on their early progress
using transformation funding to improve
their services. In addition to the direct
benefit to people with diabetes, improving
these services will also make the NHS more
sustainable in the long run."
The NHS Shared Planning Guidance
for 2017-2019 set out transformation
funding for supporting improvement
in the treatment and care of people
with diabetes. Around £44 million of
transformation funding will be used to
improve treatment and care for the 2.8
million adults and children diagnosed
with Type 1 or Type 2 diabetes. This will
include:
• increasing uptake of structured
education
• improving achievement of the NICE
recommended treatment targets
(HbA1c, blood pressure and cholesterol
for adults, HbA1c only for children)
• reducing the number of amputations
by improving access to multi-disciplinary
foot care teams
• reducing lengths of hospital stays by
improving access to specialist inpatient
support
Speaking at the event, Stevens called
Dr Partha Kar, NHS England Associate
National Clinical Cirector for Diabetes,
and Jonathan Valabhji, National Clinical
Director for Obesity and Diabetes, on
stage to sit next to him, then they took
questions from the audience.
Kar described this as, "A very clear
signal of intent- as well as support if
there ever was one." It also showed the
relationship these members of the NHS
diabetes team shares with the top tiers of
the NHS.
TO SIGN THE PETITION
CLICK THIS LINK!
DUK_FoodFightPetition