had my meeting with the Sergeant yesterday. He agreed I should've been allowed a phone call and things could've been handled differently as I was not abusive or aggressive to the police at any time. He has seen all of the CCTV footage and my complaint about my treatment in custody by one of the officers when I was like 'a woman possessed' in the cell has been taken seriously and they are getting a warning and their conduct will now be monitered. We spent over half an hour discussing diabetes. He now knows why we take insulin, what a hypo and hyper is and what causes them, some of the symptoms, (as we are all different) and how they can be resolved by either insulin or sugar. He completely understands why I reacted like I did in the cell without knowing what my BS was or have access to dextrose or insulin and why I refused to take my insulin as they wouldn't tell me how long I would be detained for and could potentially had a hypo. I showed him my 'Optimum Xceed' and the users guide and how just 2 spots of blood from the finger can determine a hypo and keytones that could both potentially lead to death if not treated. I showed him the web page and they cost £15 but are free to diabetics on prescription. He wrote the web site down and is going to take if further because he agrees that diabetics should have better treatment in custody and a monitor is all it takes. He's going to speak to his superiors about it and get the ball rolling!! RESULT!!! :thumbup: I said he might even get the monitors free because at the end of the day, they are for use by diabetics after all.Sid Bonkers said:Sorry but to my mind the police did everything they could have done to protect this person they called a doctor and went to their house to collect their insulin, which they then refused, they then took the person to A & E. At no time did the OP write of any hypo symptoms.
This wasnt the case of someone hypo and non responsive found collapsed and thought to be drunk, this was someone who was so drunk they argued with the police to the point were they were arrested, this is not easy and takes some persistence, when the police tell someone to go home they would much rather they did just that than stay and argue and cause them paper work and agro, and then after being arrested they continued to "kick off" in the cells. These are not hypo symptoms!!
A total waste of police and NHS time and money as far as I can see.
When he was leaving I said I'm gonna fight this all the way and if they don't get monitors I would like a meeting with the Chief Inspector for him to justify why. I also said that as Durham was one of the top 3 police forces in England, if they got monitors and went on 'look North' news to say why they now have them due to the amount of wasted time and money by just getting Drs to take BS alone and the stress caused to diabetics in custody, it might even start the ball rolling for the rest of the UK to follow.