OBJECTIVES: The specialist outpatient clinics (SOCs) of the 3 acute hospitals of the National Healthcare Group (NHG) in Singapore treat over 11,000 patients with diabetes mellitus. This paper studies the glycaemic and cholesterol control of type 2 diabetes mellitus (T2DM) patients at these SOCs. METHODS: This study included all patients with T2DM who attended the hospital SOCs in Jan 2009 for treatment of diabetes. These patients had been on follow-up at the same clinic for at least 12 months. The latest glycated haemoglobin (HbA1c) and LDL-cholesterol (LDL-c) results were compared by age, gender and ethnic group. Data was extracted from the NHG Diabetes Registry (CDMS). RESULTS: There were 3,420 T2DM patients with more females (53%) and disproportionately more Indians (14.1%) and fewer Chinese (66.3%) than the general population. The mean ages of male and female were 61.8 and 64.9 years respectively. The proportion of patients with “optimal” HbA1c (≤7%) and LDL-c (<2.6mmol/L) control increased with age. For HbA1c, 13% of patients <35 years had “optimal” control (mean 8.96%, 95%CI 8.42-9.50%) increasing to 61% for patients 85+ years (mean 7.04%, 95%CI 6.79-7.28%). Similarly for LDL-c, 41% of patients <35 years had “optimal” control (mean 2.92mmol/L, 95%CI 2.63-3.21mmol/L), increasing to 74% for patients 85+ years (mean 2.28mmol/L, 95%CI 2.14-2.41mmol/L). Chinese had better HbA1c and LDL-c control whilst Malay and Indian were poorest for LDL-c and HbA1c respectively. There was no gender difference. CONCLUSIONS: The control of HbA1c and LDL-c among T2DM patients improved with age. Younger patients and the Malay and Indian subgroups had greater potential to achieve “optimal” glycaemic and cholesterol control and reduce the risk of developing micro- and macro-vascular complications over time. While the older patients achieved better HbA1c control than younger ones, clinicians should remain mindful of side-effects such as hypoglycaemia among those with very tight glycaemic control.