By Bianca Carbone
It was November 2024, and Greg Bird had just woken up from an induced coma in Royal Perth Hospital after 20 days when he was given some horrific news.
While he had been unconscious, his family had been told he was unlikely to survive after multiple organ failure brought on by Type 2 diabetes.
Greg Bird.Credit: 9 News Perth
Bird had no idea he even had the disease.
The 60-year-old said he had gone in pain to the chemist, who called an ambulance for him.
He was rushed to Midland Hospital before being transferred to Royal Perth Hospital and placed in the coma.
“The diabetes had been sitting there and building up and building up, and it led to the point where the whole system shut down,” he said.
“They didn’t think I was going to make it.”
Bird is one of millions of Australians living with diabetes for whom healthcare costs are, on average, double that of someone without the condition – $9677 per person with diabetes annually compared to $4669.
Those figures have come from new research released by researchers from Deakin, La Trobe and Curtin University, who found the total cost of diabetes to Australia’s healthcare system was $14.2 billion in 2024.
Hospital admissions accounted for more than two-thirds of the total healthcare costs of diabetes.
Deakin University health economics chairwoman Suzanne Robinson said the research was an opportunity to pinpoint where to focus efforts on preventing diabetes, and in turn prevent hospital admissions.
“It seems sad that we’ve got a condition that is growing in its prevalence and also cost in the health system when it doesn’t have to,” she said.
Diabetes WA acting chief executive Sophie McGough said early diagnosis of diabetes was key, so people could avoid costly hospitalisations.
“The symptoms of diabetes can easily be missed such as feeling thirsty, tired or going to the toilet more often,” she said.
“Diabetes is a condition that can progress over time so the earlier than we can intervene, the more likely we’ll have better outcomes.
“We encourage people to see their GP or call our diabetes helpline if they have any of these symptoms.”
It’s now seven months since Bird left hospital, and he has made some serious lifestyle changes.
“Before I was diagnosed, I was drinking a lot of alcohol and eating a lot of sugar, but now I’ve given up alcohol and really looked at what I’m eating,” he said.
“You think, it’s not going to be me, you bide your time until the next week and keep doing what you’re doing.
“But we need to get people to understand the seriousness of it while they’re biding their time.”
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