Free diabetes check up at the supermarket

A Tesco supermarket in Harrow has become the first supermarket pharmacy to offer customers free diabetic testing to discover whether they are at risk of developing the disease.
Screening will involve answering a few questions and undergoing a blood-glucose test. The results will be available at once, and the pharmacist will then be able to advise the patient what to do next. Like the rest of England, it is expected that many people in the Harrow area could be suffering from diabetes without knowing it.
The test will not serve as an actual diagnosis, more of an indicator that one should seek further medical advice. The pharmacy services manager at the Tesco, Carol Clerki, said: “Along with the large number of people who don’t recognise the symptoms of diabetes, certain groups are also more likely to develop the condition. With our new free screening service, it couldn’t be easier to check out if you could be at risk. This is a vitally important health check as screening can help to indicate the likelihood you have, or may develop diabetes. Once diagnosed, diabetes can be effectively controlled with small lifestyle changes or medication.”
Free booklets entitled ‘Living with Diabetes’ are available from the pharmacy. The booklet has been developed with experts from the charity Diabetes UK .