Undiagnosed diabetes 'prime cause of blindness'

POOR LEVELS of diagnosis and poor treatment of diabetes was causing unnecessarily high levels of blindness and amputations among working-age people, an Oireachtas committee has been told.

This was primarily caused by government failure to invest in the area.

Addressing the joint committee on health and children, Dr Diarmuid Smith, a consultant endocrinologist at Beaumont hospital in Dublin, said there was an “urgent need for immediate investment in diabetes care” and Ireland was lagging behind the rest of the developed world in not having a national diabetes strategy.

“Undiagnosed and poorly-controlled Type 2 diabetes are the primary causes of blindness and amputations in the working-age group,” he said.

“Research has shown that at diagnosis over 50 per cent of people with diabetes already have eye problems. A simple national screening programme using retinal photography will stop diabetes-related blindness from developing and prove hugely cost-effective for the Government in a few short years,” he said.

Dr Smith said blindness was a bigger fear for sufferers of Type 2 diabetes than premature death.

He continued that foot-related problems accounted for 20 per cent of all diabetes-related hospital admissions and that Ireland had the lowest level of manpower in the health service for diabetes-related issues.

“The lack of foot services is another example of the health services current failures. At present far too many people go straight from having an at-risk foot to amputation.”

Though there is no national register to accurately determine the number of diabetes sufferers here, the condition is increasing worldwide and it is estimated 4.8 per cent – or 141,063 – of Irish adults have it.

This was expected to increase to 5.6 per cent, or 193,944 people, by 2015, said Dr Smith.