Cost of diabetic foot ulceration

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Hi All
My name is Gill Mulvey, undefined I work in North Cumbria as a Diabetic Podiatrist. I am presently looking at our diabetic podiatry service and in particular the costs attached with managing the many diabetic foot ulcers we have, Does anybody have any article/reference for the cost of managing a diabetic foot ulcer? Thank You Gill

 

A few statistics

Hi Gill, the following is an abstract of, I understand, a discussion in the European parliament started by a UK Euro MP named John Bowis, about whom I know absolutely nothing. I came across the following when trawling the web for information for a project I was doing at Durham a little while ago. I know its really about the cost of NOT managing a diabetic ulcer but hope its of some interest. Kind Regards, Martin.

:

Statistics on numbers of people with diabetes, ulcers and amputations from Office for Diabetics UK, Mancini & Ruotolo (1997); Harding, KG; Boyce DE; NHS Centre for Reviews & Dissemination (1999).

Financial cost to the NHS from The Diabetic Foot volume 6 no.2 2003, and Department of Health 2002.

‘Urgent Action Required to Prevent Thousands of Needless Amputations of Diabetic Patients’ John Bowis
Added: (Sun Sep 25 2005)
23rd September 2005

‘Urgent Action Required to Prevent Thousands of Needless Amputations of Diabetic Patients’ John Bowis Conservative MEP


A lower limb is lost once every 30 seconds somewhere in the world as a result of diabetes. This problem is not only confined to developing countries; there are as many as 1.4 million people in the UK diagnosed as diabetic. Of these 210,000 (15 percent) will develop a foot ulcer and of these 31,000 (15 percent) will result in amputation in any one year. With an ageing population these figures are expected to double by 2010.

Diabetic ulcers are a major drain on NHS accounting for between 12-15 percent of total healthcare resources. Diabetic foot ulcers and resulting amputations cost up to £502m per year. The cost of a single amputation alone amounts to:
o Toe £ 3,443
o Foot £ 7,786
o Leg £10,979

 

Hi Gill,
There are some references to costings on P18 of the NICE guidelines "The Burden....."
There's a link to the guidelines on this page:
Foot In Diabetes UK

Cheers
John