The recently published national diabetes audit examined the NHS's treatment of almost 2 million people with diabetes in England and Wales in 2010-11. It depicts a worrying picture of how the condition sharply increases the risk of other complications, some potentially fatal.

The audit, undertaken by the NHS's Health and Social Care Information Centre, the charity Diabetes UK and the Healthcare Quality Improvement Partnership, also found people with diabetes were 65% more likely to have heart failure, 144% more at risk of needing kidney dialysis or a kidney transplant, 210% more likely to have a leg amputated above or below the knee , 331% more likely to need part of a foot removed and 25% more at risk of suffering a stroke.

The findings have increased calls for the NHS to improve the care of people with diabetes, as numbers rise sharply, mainly as a result of the increase in obesity.
It found they were 48% more likely to have a heart attack, for example. In 2010-11 a total of 14,500 people with diabetes suffered a heart attack compared with the 9,800 that would be expected to occur in the general population.