More than 4,400 diabetes-related amputations are performed at Australian hospitals every year – most are preventable.

Today around 12 people will undergo a diabetes-related amputation. Tomorrow, 12 more people will have an amputation.

It is estimated diabetes-related amputations costs Australia around $875 million every single year.

Surveys show that the general public underestimates the seriousness of diabetes and most people aren’t aware of the connection between diabetes and amputations.

The 4400 Reasons to End Amputations campaign aims to raise awareness of this critical issue and calls for a new Diabetes Amputation Prevention Initiative to end the tragedy of diabetes-related amputations.

Call to Action

We can end diabetes-related amputations with a generation.

To do this, we need to do three things:

1. Change public attitudes We need to raise awareness of this devastating issue with our political leaders and compel them to take urgent action. We also need to raise community awareness so that people check their feet regularly. Too many Australians living with diabetes are missing out on vital foot checks because they aren’t aware of what they need to do to look after their feet.

2. Provide earlier treatment We need to reorientate our health system towards early intervention and early prevention. We need to implement more foot care teams across the nation. We currently have one team for every one million Australians. We need to lift that to about one team for every 100,000 Australians. This means increasing access to services like diabetes educators, podiatrists, and other allied health services so people get the support they need.

3. Measure our progress We need accountability and transparency to measure if we are getting better. We need to set reduction targets and measure the people who don’t access foot checks, the number of hospitalisations of people with diabetes and the number of amputations.