Community pharmacists have a "vital" role in reducing the "enormous" cost of diabetes treatment, charity Diabetes UK has said.

Pharmacists needed to talk to patients to ensure they were taking their medication correctly, Diabetes UK said yesteday (August 12), in response to NHS data that showed the cost of prescribing for the condition jumped 5 per cent in the last year.

The net ingredient cost of items prescribed for diabetes in England rose 5.1 per cent to £803.1 million between 2012-13 and 2013-14, an increase of £39m, according to figures released by the Health and Social Care Information Centre (HSCIC) yesterday (August 12).

The number of diabetes items dispensed also rose, by 6.1 per cent to 45.1m, HSCIC said. This was an increase of 67 per cent since 2005.

Diabetes accounted for 4.4 per cent of all items prescribed on the NHS and 9.5 per cent of the total prescribing cost, HSCIC said. Around 124,000 items where dispensed for diabetes each day at a cost of £2.2m, it said.

The jump in net ingredient cost was a sharp contrast to last year, when costs rose by just 0.5 per cent despite the number of dispensed items increasing by 4.7 per cent.

What can pharmacists do?

Simon O'Neill, director of health intelligence and professional liaison at Diabetes UK, said community pharmacists had a "key role" in checking patients were taking their insulin medication as prescribed.

"A discussion should also be had about whether the person is experiencing any side effects. It should be made clear that, even if this is the case, then it is by no means the end of the road and there are many alternatives available," he told C+D.

Mr O'Neill also pointed to the "poorly implemented" NHS health check programme as a way to identify at-risk patients before they developed the condition.

HSCIC chair Kingsley Manning said the data highlighted the "growing implications" of managing "one of the most prevalent life-threatening conditions in England".

	How do you help diabetes patients in your pharmacy?