Radio New Zealand - Te Reo Irirangi o Aotearoa

Diabetes health services vary widely, study finds

Updated at 2:52 pm on 5 July 2009

Specialist health services for the 170,000 New Zealanders with diabetes vary widely according to where people live, according to a study by the national advisory body for diabetes.

The Society for the Study of Diabetes survey, completed by each of the country's 21 district health boards, revealed that some had almost five times the amount of specialist services available than others.

The study ranked the health boards, putting the West Coast at the top of the table, and Taranaki at the bottom.

The society's president, Patrick Manning, says the system is unfair, and New Zealand has half the number of diabetes specialists it should have if recommendations developed in the UK were followed.

"The prevalence of diabetes in New Zealand, like all other Western countries, is increasing at an alarming rate," he says.

"So if we're already under-resourced ... it's going to make things much worse over the next five to ten years when diabetes prevalence figures will go up significantly more."

The society is calling for a national standard so all district health boards offer the same services to diabetics.

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