HEALTH chiefs spend more than £6 million on diabetes care a year, new figures show.

The cost of hospital treatment, prescriptions and clinics for people with type 1 and type 2 diabetes reached £6.4 million last year.

However, the overall cost for the entire population of Bolton is expected to be much more.

The new figure comes after doctors issued a warning about a “diabetes tsunami” hitting Bolton.

Su Long, chair of NHS Bolton Clinical Commissioning Group (CCG), said they are focussed on preventing more people developing the disease.

Ms Long said: “More and more people now have long term conditions, such as diabetes, so it is important that we have the right services in place to support them.

“For those with diabetes, this means helping people to manage their condition to reduce the risk of complications and ensuring access to specialist or emergency treatment, if they need it.

“The CCG is also investing in prevention of diabetes. “We are working with GPs to identify those at risk of developing this condition and providing targeted support to help them make changes to their lifestyle.”

The £6.4 million does not include the sum spent by GPs on diabetes.

The number of people at risk of developing type 2 diabetes has risen by more than 15,000 in just two years.

An obesity epidemic is adding the increase, according to experts.

Council bosses say more could be done to help people make “healthy choices” in what they eat and how much they exercise.

Cllr Linda Thomas, deputy leader of the council, said: “Whilst we know that it’s really important for people to maintain a healthy weight and eat a healthy diet in order to avoid health problems like diabetes, we need to make it easier for people to make the healthy choices.

Bolton Council is doing its bit to make healthy eating easier with schemes such as our cooking skills project at Bolton Market, promoting healthy catering through our Healthy Catering Award and by reducing the number of take-aways near schools, but the government should be doing more to ensure the food industry reduces the amount of sugar, salt and saturated fat in foods.”