IT is ironic that as one branch of government was using Diabetes Week to call on NSW residents to make submissions on factors which can lead to the illness, another was cutting funding for a tool that helps sufferers monitor it.
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A NSW upper house inquiry last week urged the community, including the young, to tell it what would help them follow a healthier lifestyle and issues they face dealing with childhood obesity.
Being overweight or obese increases the risk of people suffering poor health as they age and developing chronic illnesses like diabetes, the fastest growing chronic condition in Australia.
More than 400,000 NSW people have diabetes, which is growing at a faster rate than heart disease and cancer. Western NSW has a high incidence.
Statistics show 30.4 per cent of secondary school students in the Western and Far West NSW local health districts were overweight or obese in 2014.
That explains the inquiry’s plea. Prevention is better than cure. Let’s minimise the risk in the early stages … childhood.
Anyone can see the sense. Besides helping people avoid illness, it would take strain off health budgets.
But, the election is over and the federal government is returned.
Does it have a plan? Yes. Sensible? Questionable.
It has removed the subsidy on blood strips used by diabetics, who are not insulin dependent, to monitor sugar levels.
According to reports those diabetics – about two-thirds of cases – will pay about 50 times more for the strips or about $60 a box. If they test four times a day a box would last 25 days. That’s a total annual bill of about $840.
Monitoring blood sugar levels is not simply about avoiding day-to-day issues from their condition.
It is about controlling their systems to avoid long-term complications like heart disease, amputations, eye-sight, organ and nerve damage. If complications develop and need treatment there is a big cost and strain on the health system and funding.
Canberra says the decision was based on studies which found the monitoring achieved little.
Diabetes Australia and the Australian Medical Association disagree with the findings and subsidy cut.
Perhaps the federal government should get a second opinion.