Bucks doctors are among the best in the world for helping patients to control diabetes, it has been revealed.

However health bosses warn childhood obesity continues to be a “massive problem” in the county, as 30 per cent of children are leaving primary school severely overweight.

Bucks County Council’s (BCC) health and social care select committee met yesterday (November 20) where members were updated on plans to integrate the two services.

Councillor for Chalfont St Peter, David Martin, raised concerns diabetes rates are on the rise nationally – and asked assurance health bosses “have a grip” on the issue.

Chief officer at Buckinghamshire Clinical Commissioning Group (CCG), Louise Patten, said more can be done to reduce diabetes rates- but added it is “relatively easy” to measure the effectiveness of advice and treatment provided.

She added GP practices in Bucks are “the best in the country” for controlling diabetes, in terms of advice and support provided to patients, and are ranked seven in the world.

She said: “There are some good clinical measures we can take for diabetes that links to the effectiveness of information and support that patients are getting, so there is the level of blood sugar in patients that have diabetes, whether it’s type one or type two.

“That is a relatively easy measure to take and it is one of the clinical measures we take as a CCG to understand the effectiveness of the interventions of the GP practices.”

A report on health and social care integration – run by NHS organisations and authorities – states a service has been developed to support people with long-term conditions, including diabetes.

The main aims aims are to prevent the illness by providing advice to people who are at risk of getting the condition and supporting newly-diagnosed patients to help them understand the illness.

However more work needs to be done to tackle childhood obesity, according to Ms Patten, as rates across the county continue to rise.

Council figures show up to 1,000 children in reception classes across the county are overweight or obese. The issue appears to become more severe as children get older, as more than a quarter of pupils in year six are classes as being either overweight or obese.

Ms Patten added: “I don’t think we can underestimate the massive problem we are going to have in Bucks that is coming over the hill, due to the fact around 30 per cent of our children leaving primary school are obese, and of those 70 per cent will go on to develop problems associated with obesity, such as heart problems and diabetes.

“So we absolutely have to keep doing the preventative messages and making sure our children get fitter and don’t move towards those high risk factors.”