Shorten seeks PM action on diabetes

Labor leader Bill Shorten has written to Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull seeking better support for people with diabetes.

The federal government has provided free continuous glucose monitoring (GCM) devices for under-21s.

But it has yet to match Labor's 2016 election commitment to a broader rollout of the devices to other at-risk groups.

At its most extreme, hypoglycaemia can be deadly.

Complications of Type 1 diabetes can also include kidney failure, nerve damage, heart disease, stroke and blindness.

Continuous glucose monitoring devices - which continually monitor blood glucose levels through sensors placed under the skin, linked to hand-held devices such as mobile phones or insulin pumps - are very effective in minimising these risks.

They can also save money in terms of health care costs.

Mr Shorten has received a number of requests at town hall meetings he's held across the country for the devices to be made more widely available.

"We urge you to act and make these devices available for Australians who need it," he says in the letter to Mr Turnbull.

It's estimated there are 1.2 million Australians with known diabetes and more than two million are at high risk of developing it.

Diabetes Australia is advocating the next stage of the GCM devices rollout cover adults with type 1 diabetes experiencing "recurrent severe hypos or impaired awareness of hypos, or significant fear of hypos".

As well it should be made available to women with type 1 diabetes using insulin while planning for a pregnancy and during pregnancy, due to the adverse effect that high and low glucose levels can have on the unborn child.