Blood testing

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davef

Member
Messages
7
My GP has consistently refused to prescribe test strips for blood testing. I have type 2 controlled by metformin. Today, in common with all other type 2 patients, I received a letter from the practice which says that in future I will only be receiving a check up once per year and then it will only be an HBA1C test and not the fasting sugar. The letter also confirms their attitude to self testing. I quote “In line with the latest thinking on diabetes care, we are making a few changes ..... If your diabetes is Type 2 then you do not need to do finger prick testing. The companies which make testing machines and strips will still try to sell them to you or persuade you to get them on prescription but it really isn’t necessary. For this reason we will not generally prescribe these items and have now removed them from most patients records... exceptions being Type 1”.

Can anyone comment on this and also where they get their “in line with latest thinking” from?
 
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sugarless sue

Master
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10,098
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Rude people! Not being able to do the things I want to do.
My comment.........shear madness!!Now my doc just gave me a prescription for my test strips.I bought my own machine.Considering that the tester is fairly cheap and it is the test strips that are expensive it seems a bit upside down!
 
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martinbuchan

Well-Known Member
Messages
354
This is based on the fact that BS testing does not lead to improved HBA1C results. Its a shame, becuase I am sure it would be useful for some people. Your only real judge in the intervening months is your weight.

If the strips were cheap there would be no problem getting them.

Marty B
 
Russ

Russ

Well-Known Member
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Type of diabetes
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Injustice
Hi Dave,

There seems to be a lottery here, especially with practices choosing which bits of NICE's guidelines they wish to implement. My PCT and therefore practice seem to follow these guidelines.

NICE have said, more recently than in their original guidelines in 2002, that regular testing for Type II diabetics is desirable and PCTs have this information. I'm afraid I cannot find these guidelines but I am pretty sure someone posted them on the old forum. I think the only thing is to refer your MP to these guidelines and ask him or her to put pressure on your local PCT to follow the guidelines.

You might like to look at the dospament produced by http://www.diabetes.org.uk - http://www.diabetes.org.uk/About_us/Our ... d_glucose/ which says "The guidelines focus on the use of HbA1c to give a picture of overall control and for that control to be stable. It is however difficult to make recommendations and take action on treatment and lifestyle adjustment, without at least some form of home monitoring. To use the guideline as a basis to restrict access is a misinterpretation and was not the intention of the Guideline Development Group."

Maybe if you get in touch with them they will help with more details and updates.

Good luck

Russ
 
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