Meeting of the Parliament 10 January 2017
I congratulate Clare Adamson on securing the debate and on the work that she has undertaken in this area inside and outside Parliament. I also thank Diabetes Scotland and the JDRF for their useful briefings ahead of this evening’s debate. As the motion makes clear, type 1 diabetes, unlike type 2, is not linked to dietary or lifestyle factors. Rather, it is an autoimmune condition whose cause is not yet understood and which cannot be prevented at present.
I have a good friend who has had type 1 diabetes her whole life. I have to say that it has always amazed me how she has never let it hold her back in anything she has turned her hand to. Growing up and working with her, I was always concerned about the constant strain that the monitoring of her blood glucose levels had on her body as well as the insulin injections that she has to take and the effect that it all had on her life, especially when she was a young woman growing up. As has been mentioned, blood glucose levels must be monitored up to 10 times a day so the development and roll-out of continuous glucose monitoring, an area in which Scotland has recently lagged, will be a real benefit to type 1 diabetes patients.
The Scottish Government’s recent announcement of £10 million is welcome, although we need more details about how and on what timescale that funding will be rolled out, so that the many thousands of Scottish patients who desperately need CGM can access it without further delay. I hope that the minister will outline those details when responding to this evening’s debate.
I join Clare Adamson in paying tribute to the JDRF for its excellent work both in supporting people who have type 1 diabetes and funding the research to prevent the disease, improve current treatments and eventually, I hope, find a cure.
With Scotland having such a high incidence of type 1 diabetes, it is entirely appropriate that our scientists are at the forefront of such vital research. As the motion suggests, internationally important research is currently being undertaken in Scotland with the support of the JDRF. For example, at the University of Edinburgh in my region, Professor Helen Colhoun and her team are working on a project to develop a set of indicators of the disease, or biomarkers, to be used along with clinical data to find out who is most at risk of rapid progression of diabetic kidney disease. They aim to produce useful information that will help to accelerate the process of developing drugs to prevent and reverse kidney disease in type 1 diabetes patients. I wish those researchers and others working in this area every success.
We must ensure that our national health service is providing the best possible service and support for type 1 patients. Diabetes UK’s 2015 “The Age of Diabetes” report highlighted a range of areas in which improvements are clearly required in Scotland. It is of real concern for everyone in the chamber that the evidence suggests that people with type 1 diabetes are receiving a poorer level of care than people with type 2, with the percentage of type 1 patients who receive their vital HbA1c check each year being lower than the percentage of people with type 2 diabetes. That must be addressed to help to reduce the risk of potential complications as a result of people not being supported to manage their diabetes well. I hope that that is also an area in which we can make changes in the future.
Diabetes is rightly high on the public health agenda and it must remain so. Tackling the rise in the number of people with type 2 diabetes is clearly a policy priority for Governments across the western world. However, we must also recognise the needs of our constituents who have type 1 diabetes and ensure that they are getting the best possible treatment, support and care until our scientists can, I hope, develop the cure that we all want to see.
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