The first vice president of the Board of Andalusia and minister of the Presidency, Health and Emergencies, Antonio Sanz, said this Thursday in the Plenary Session of the Parliament that next Wednesday the Governing Council has planned to approve the new Comprehensive Diabetes Plan for Andalusia 2026-2030. As the first vice president has emphasized, this plan "sets out a roadmap to move forward on prevention, early diagnosis, personalized care and research" and also includes the launch of the first early detection program for type 1 diabetes.
"It is a comprehensive plan that includes an investment of 116 million euros, of which 96% will be devoted to direct care and, in cross-cutting governance, which we will carry out with education, with social services, with territorial equity and with efficiency," the first vice president stressed, reiterating in a press release sent by the Board that this plan is "progress toward a proactive model based on the analysis of the clinical data of the health system".
In Andalusia, as the minister has specified, it is estimated that close to one million people in Andalusia live with diabetes and that practically another million have a high risk of developing it. The start of the first pilot early detection program seeks to identify type 1 diabetes in at-risk populations before the appearance of the initial symptoms, advance health care and reduce serious complications at the time of diagnosis. "To do this, the clinical protocol has been developed and we are working on its progressive and homogeneous implementation in Andalusia," he said.
This protocol will be aimed at people at high risk, such as first-degree relatives of patients with type 1 diabetes. The procedure will allow, once their results have been analyzed and the necessary improvements have been incorporated, for the program to be gradually extended to the different health centers, responding to the demand of associations of patients and families with type 1 diabetes. The minister also recalled that the Andalusian Executive has allocated an additional 19 million euros this year to expand access to automated insulin infusion systems and to continuous glucose monitoring devices.
In recent dates, the Board has processed a tender with a maximum amount of 292.8 million euros for the supply of interstitial glucose monitoring systems to people with diabetes over the next four years. With this measure, the Department is moving toward universal coverage of automated insulin delivery systems for children under 18 years of age with type 1 diabetes in 2027, as well as for pregnant women.
At present, the public health system in Andalusia provides continuous glucose monitoring to patients with type 1 diabetes, type 2 diabetes and other forms of secondary diabetes treated with multiple doses of insulin and, since June 2026, pioneering in Spain, also to people treated only with basal insulin. At the same time, the minister has highlighted the strengthening of professional care and support for patients, with 411 specialist nurses in Family and Community Nursing already incorporated into Primary Care.
Along these lines, specialized care has been strengthened with 44 professionals of Advanced Nursing Practice in Diabetes. These resources are added to by the fourteen Diabetes Day Hospitals, which enable specific care and help to avoid avoidable hospital admissions. As the minister has highlighted, the Government of Andalusia maintains its commitment to reducing complications associated with the disease, with a network of 378 retinographs for the early detection of diabetic retinopathy and the development of the Diabetic Foot Prevention and Care Network.