Diabetics are fighting a decision to ditch plans for a new hospital specialist unit catering for their illness - reports The Sentinel.
The unit at the University Hospital of North Staffordshire was due to be included in the area's new hospital, to be built in the next five years.
But the scheme has had to be scaled down for financial reasons and the re-drawn plans no longer show a self-contained diabetic care centre.
Leaders of the thousands of local diabetics voiced fears that they will be "left in limbo" because their existing specialist centre is due to close, forcing them to rely on GPs instead.
News of the closure of the so-called Nines Block comes amid a sharp rise in diabetes cases nationally, linked to rising obesity levels.
Sandra Parsons, of the North Staffordshire branch of the charity Diabetes UK, said: "We have been told that the cut-down funding wouldn't cover the cost of a diabetic care centre in the new plans.
"But no-one has told us, or told the specialist nurses we rely on, what will happen after the Nines Block comes down, reportedly in July.
"In GP surgeries, the service is very patchy - some have diabetic clinics but others don't. There have even been cases of our members having to transfer doctors until they can find a practice with specialist clinic.
"Yet provision is now being squeezed at the hospital end, too.
The branch, which has hospital diabetes specialist Dr John Scarpello as its president, has already raised more than 1,000 signatures for a petition of protest and is now trying to enlist MPs into the fight.
Diabetes is a leading cause of blindness. It can also lead to angina, heart failure, strokes, renal failure and amputation.
Figures for 2005/06 showed there are almost 16,000 registered diabetics in Stoke-on-Trent and Newcastle, with 60,000 in total in Staffordshire and Shropshire.
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