Where there is an established network of Community pharmacies, such as in the UK, many peoples’ first contact with their health service is with their local chemist. Increasingly health care managers are trying to encourage people to go to their pharmacy first before seeing a doctor, or visiting a hospital.
Pharmacists are well placed to screen patients for type 2 diabetes, which could increase early diagnosis and significantly reduce health service costs – according to new research from the University of East Anglia and Boots UK.
More than three million people in the UK were diagnosed with diabetes in 2014 and there was an estimated 590,000 people with undiagnosed diabetes.
The estimated cost of type 2 diabetes to the NHS in 2011 was £8.8bn. The cost of diabetes to the NHS is expected to rise from 10 per cent to 17 per cent between then and 2035 – with one third of this being due to complications of the disease.
Early identification and treatment of diabetes is known to reduce the incidence of complications. Screening services increase the number of diabetes diagnoses and results in cases being identified 3.3 years earlier on average.
https://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2019-03/uoeat2d032519.php
Pharmacists have been identified as important partners in changing the behaviour of people and are also being encouraged to help patients with type 2 diabetes to change their diet in order to reduce their reliance on drugs. There are different professional views on low carbohydrate diets but the potential is there for engaging pharmacists more in achieving improved health care outcomes.