both in the UK and globally. This is characterised by poor diagnosis of long-term diseases that threaten to reach epidemic proportions -- particularly obesity and diabetes. The experts predict that unless direct action is taken now to enhance funding and place greater emphasis on the early diagnosis of core disease areas, we will be locked in a healthcare system of severe decline. A look at the sums involved will indicate the scale of the problem. According to Wanless, the cost of healthcare could rise to 13% of GDP in the next decade or so. And in terms of absolute expenditure, the difference between Wanless' best and worst scenarios could grow to approximately 30 billion by 2022/23 -- or half the current NHS expenditure. Age-old problems Clearly as diagnosis and treatment of disease improves, so does life expectancy. The panel in the latest clinical Delphi study -- Diabetes 2020, completed in September 2004 -- confirmed that longer life spans will be a major driver of cost. This is not only because treatment of patients for diseases such as type-II diabetes will last longer, but because of more complex co-morbidities associated with increasing age. These critical issues were discussed in detail in both Diabetes 2020 and the earlier Cardio 2010 study, completed in 2001. World-renowned physicians predicted enormous increases in the cost of treating cardiovascular disease, type-II diabetes and obesity. They confirmed, for example, that since in Western countries some 30% of all type-II diabetics remain undiagnosed, even a small percentage improvement