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15 October 2023
Issue no. 156
ISSN 2632-3389
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Insulin insecurity Susannah Hickling takes an in depth look at why there is a problem for Somerset diabetics trying to get their insulin Imagine an illness where you will die without crucial medication, but that medication isn’t available. If you don’t die immediately, you may develop complications over time and die from one of those instead. One such condition is diabetes and people living with it in Somerset have been reporting that their life-saving medicines are all too often out of stock. One of these is a reader of The Leveller® from Langport whose wife couldn’t get her insulin. “We asked in May for a repeat prescription,” he says. “We were told there wasn’t any. Two months later at the end of July we were given a new drug.” Diabetes is a condition where there is too much glucose in the blood because the body cannot use it properly. There are two main types, type 1 and type 2 diabetes. Poorly managed, it can lead to devastating medical emergencies like diabetic ketoacidosis, which can result in coma and death, as well as long-term complications. Diabetes is one of the leading causes of preventable sight loss in people of working age in the UK and a major cause of lower limb amputation, kidney failure and stroke. According to Diabetes UK, there are now more than 37,000 people aged 17 and over diagnosed with diabetes in Somerset, an increase of around 1,500 in a year. That’s 7.57% of the population of the county, the highest prevalence in the south west. Note that figure doesn’t even include children. Around 8% of people have type 1 diabetes, which is not preventable. (Turn to page 26)
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The winning entry in this year’s CPRE Somerset photo competition was “True Love Dance at Ham Wall.” Photo by Becky Davies. You can read more on p58.