Around 5% of Jersey’s population (about 5000 people) are known to have diabetes. But there are many more that do not know they have the condition. In fact, recent research showed that up to 2,000 islanders could be living with undiagnosed or borderline diabetes.

That’s why for World Diabetes Day 2018 we teamed up with Diabetes Jersey to offer free screening tests. These 5-10 minute consultations were offered to islanders over four dates in November and December at our Jersey Pharmacy Locales.

The tests are quick and easy: in our private consultation rooms, our trained pharmacy staff ask customers to fill out a one-page form with their details, then follow up with questions about diet, lifestyle, family history, age, weight and height.

This information helps to determine whether customers were at low, increased, moderate or high risk of developing Type 2 Diabetes.

Customers who were found to be at moderate or high risk had their blood sugar level checked, by taking a very small finger-prick sample of blood. If needed, customers were then referred to their doctors.

In many cases, our team were able to provide lifestyle advice for ways to reduce the chances of developing Type 2 Diabetes.

In total, our pharmacy teams screened 363 people for Type 2 Diabetes over the four dates. Approximately 10% of those tested required referral for diagnosis of diabetes or pre-diabetes.

We were delighted to collaborate with Diabetes Jersey to raise awareness of this condition, and support islanders to reduce their risk factors to live their healthiest lives.

Following the success of this initiative we are now launching diabetes screening as a permanent service in our Jersey Pharmacy Locales. The service costs £5, and will again take place in the private consultation rooms at Pharmacy Locales.

Peter Tabb of Diabetes Jersey said that he greatly appreciated the support of the Co-operative Pharmacy Locale teams:

“I would like to place on record our appreciation of the generous offer of free testing for Type 2 Diabetes on World Diabetes Day."

“This was enhanced by the ready cooperation of the pharmacies’ staff, who coped admirably both with the members of the public (in much greater number than I would have anticipated) and the attentions of the media."

“Support such as we have received from yourselves makes it much easier to achieve Diabetes Jersey’s objective of raising awareness of the condition and how it can be combatted.”

We very much look forward to working with Diabetes Jersey in the future, to further raise awareness amongst at-risk islanders of this preventable condition.