Summary

Diabetes is a clinical area of high expenditure. This report presents national level trends in prescribing for diabetes in England with information that illustrates the increasing prevalence of diabetes and obesity in England.

It looks at information on primary and secondary care prescribing for diabetes from 2002 to 2008. The number of prescription items and Net Ingredient Cost (NIC) are used to analyse volume, expenditure and trends in the prescribing of insulin, oral anti-diabetic drugs and diagnostic and monitoring agents.

The report has been produced jointly by The NHS Information Centre and the Yorkshire and Humber Public Health Observatory (YHPHO), and is an update to an earlier report published in November 2007.

Key facts

• At the end of June 2008 2.1 million people aged 17 years and over had a registered diagnosis of diabetes.
• For the most recent 12 month period reported, October 2007 to September 2008, there were 31.9 million items prescribed at a net ingredient cost of £581.2 million.
• Between October 2007 and September 2008 the net ingredient cost of medicines for diabetes dispensed in hospitals was estimated to be far less than, only 2.1 per cent of, the net ingredient cost of medicines for diabetes dispensed in primary care.