#GPnews: Cricket stars launch campaign to raise awareness of Type 2 diabetes

15:43 It must be the day for launching campaigns.

England and Pakistan cricket stars have launched a campaign today urging people to go online and find out their risk of developing Type 2 diabetes. 

Warwickshire County Cricket Club and Diabetes UK have teamed up for the third Test Match between England and Pakistan at Edgbaston, with a special ‘Diabetes Day’ on Thursday 4 August to raise awareness of the condition.

14:05 Pressure group GP Survival has launched a new campaign urging the Crown Prosecution Service to a act in a ‘more proportionate manner’ when considering bringing ‘gross negligence manslaughter’ prosecutions against doctors when a patient dies. 

The pressure group said there has been an ‘alarming trend’ over the last few years of doctors being prosecuted. 

A statement on GP Survival’s website said: ‘This sits in the context of wider need for regulatory reform that recognises the speed of change within medicine and the increasing pressures doctors face.

‘Our strategy is to open up a debate in the national media about the appropriateness of the change in the way doctors are being treated and the impact this has on patient care. This will be followed by further discussion with interested parties with the hope we can change the way our laws are applied.’

11:55 Elsewhere today, an investigation by The Telegraph on the earnings of NHS bosses has revealed that a temporary manager was being paid £60,000 per month. 

The investigation found that in just one year, the number of managers paid ’off payroll’ by NHS trusts has risen by almost one quarter.

Steve Leivers was paid rates equivalent to an annual salary of £715,000 to act as ‘turnaround director’ of Kings College Hospital Foundation trust, in London, the Telegraph claimed. 

However, by comparison, NHS chief executive Simon Steven earns £190,000 per year. 

10:00 A new report published today has revealed the rising costs of drugs used to treat diabetes. 

The annual net ingredient cost (NIC) on drugs used to treat the condition increased by £88m in 2015/16 – bringing the annual primary care prescribing spend on the drug classification to £956.7m, new figures have shown.

NHS Digitial’s report – Prescribing for Diabetes 2005/06 to 2015/16 – also found that in the last financial year, 49.7m prescription items were dispensed in England for the treatment and management of diabetes.

The £956.7m annual spend makes up 10.6% of the total cost of all prescribing in primary care in England, and is almost double the cost of a decade ago, when it was £513.9m, or 6.6% of the overall spend.