Diabetes-related deaths in Wales fall by more than a quarter

Deaths from diabetes-related conditions in Wales have fallen by more than a quarter in four years, a report for the Welsh government has found.

Ministers welcomed the 28% fall from 420 to 300, between 2009 and 2013, and said they were "taking action" to diagnose the disease early.

But a diabetes charity said performance was "patchy", with only one in three people meeting treatment targets.

Diabetes UK Cymru said the reduced deaths was part of a UK-wide trend.

Commenting on the report, Together for Health - a Diabetes Action Plan, Deputy Health Minister Vaughan Gething said ministers were "taking action to diagnose people with diabetes as early as possible and reduce the number of deaths associated with the condition".

"While we are making good progress, all of us still have a personal responsibility to look after our own health and not put ourselves at risk of falling victim to diabetes," he said.

Disease plan 'promise'

Diabetes UK Cymru director Dai Williams said the falling number of deaths from diabetes-related conditions had been a "general trend for a number of years" across the UK, yet in Wales "we know that only one in three people with diabetes are meeting treatment targets, that hasn't improved".

While there were "signs" of improved education for people with the disease and better treatment for children being introduced in the future, he said, a major diabetes prevention plan for Wales had been promised 18 months ago and "I've yet to see something happen".

"The headlines sound good, scratch a bit behind them and they're not telling us anything we don't already know - if you look at it in a bit more detail, it is patchy," he said.