Prescriptions for diabetes top 40 million

Diabetes prescription numbers topped 40 million for the first time last year, according to official figures.

The number of diabetes prescriptions rose by nearly 50 per cent in six years, from 13.5m in 2005-06 to 40.6m in 2011-12, data from the Health and Social Care Information Centre shows.

Net cost of diabetes drugs also rose by just under 50 per cent during the same period, according to the report Prescribing For Diabetes In England: 2005/6 to 2011/12.

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In 2005-06 diabetes drugs cost the NHS £246.3m. Last year they cost £760.3m.

The growth is much greater than the rise seen in prescription numbers overall, at 33 per cent. Ingredient costs increased by just under 11 per cent.

Diabetes drugs take up a bigger share of both total drugs dispensed and the total net cost to the NHS. The overall cost of drugs to the NHS fell last year by one per cent but the diabetes drugs bill increased by nearly five per cent.