Medical centres and BG monitors.

[Kenny3]

Was in on Friday to give a blood sample to check kidney.I asked why they had not got it from my first sample and they said the test lab forgot to do it. That does not fill me with confidence, if they can do that(or not) what else can they get wrong? Anyway the discussion turned to blood glucose meters and I told them I had bought my own and the nurse told me they did`nt give me a meter because they don`t think I need one at home. Apparently they have plenty of the meters whereas I was told by another staff member that they were very short of the meters, which is why I bought mine. Conflicting statements from staff members on the same team. Again; not a confidence booster. Anyway, I am glad I bought my own because, though I am not an expert by any means on these meters, could there be a possibility of contamination or false readings if the meter is used to test different people? I might be totally wrong here, but how many people on the forum have their own individual meter and prefer it that way? Kenny

 

[Brunneria]

Hi Kenny,

Lots of questions so I will take them one by one.

Sadly, lab test results do go pearshaped, It may be an error in labelling, or contamination, or absent mindedness, but people are people, and that means they are fallible. Sad but true. But they just run them again - so long as someone notices. This time, you did, so well done on spotting the error and chasing it.

The real reason that the NHS doesn't supply meters to many T2s is that they want to save money. They argue a lot of things - it hurts the fingers, it doesn't tell you anything unless you are on insulin, it isn't policy, they argue there is no proven benefit, yada, yada - but the truth is that the NHS is strapped for cash and giving meters and expensive test strips to T2s is (in their opinion) less of a priority that we (the T2s) would like it to be.

So your two nurses gave you two different answers because they were trying to dodge the 'we aren't prepared to spend that money on you' conversation. Plus, of course, they may actually believe what they are saying. After all, if they have never seen a T2 take dietary control, reduce their HbA1c and maintain the improvements, then they have never, personally seen any benefit to handing out a meter...

Don't worry about the risk of contamination from a second hand meter. They would never hand out a second hand meter for precisely that reason. It is against the rules. If you ever do get given one, it will be new and straight from the packaging. The meters themselves are often given away by the meter manufacturers, because they want to give them away so that people keep coming back and spending dosh on repeat orders of the test strips. That is where they make their profits.

Personally, I have had a meter for approx 4 years now. Wouldn't be without it. And I absolutely know that it is the best and most important reason that I have control over my T2 diabetes. Without it, I wouldn't know that I can eat a few chips and have good blood glucose, but that bread sends my bg sky high. And I wouldn't know that I can eat a whole punnet of delicious juicy fresh cherries, so long as I spread them across the day, whereas eating them all at once would give me horrible bg readings. I find my meter invaluable for portion size and food choices. Wouldn't ever want to be without it.

 

[Mep]

That does sound confusing for you. I'm not in UK, so not the same here. But I own a few meters and I've always used my own meter since diagnosis. I'd think that would be a common sense approach from medical professionals, but sounds like that isn't what you're experiencing. I wish you the best.

 

[Bluetit1802]

When I was diagnosed, and after nagging my nurse and persuading her I knew what I was doing, and why I wanted to test, she gave in and gave me a meter. It was brand new, in the original box, and came with 50 strips and a lancet pen. She told me that was that, no prescription for further strips. This was an Accuchek Mobile, which was the meter my surgery gave to all the eligible diabetics at the time. This was because AccuChek provided the surgery with many free meters to give away, safe in the knowledge the patients would have to keep on buying replacement strips - which were £25 for 50 at the time. Good business practice by the manufacturers, not so good for us as patients without a prescription. I soon found out about Codefree, bought the meter and pay less than £6 for 50 strips.

I still have the AccuChek Mobile, and I still use the lancet pen that came with it (because they are the best lancet pens around) but I only use the AccuChek in emergencies or if I want to do some comparison tests occasionally. Otherwise it is packed away.

 

[Jaylee]

Was in on Friday to give a blood sample to check kidney.I asked why they had not got it from my first sample and they said the test lab forgot to do it. That does not fill me with confidence, if they can do that(or not) what else can they get wrong? Anyway the discussion turned to blood glucose meters and I told them I had bought my own and the nurse told me they did`nt give me a meter because they don`t think I need one at home. Apparently they have plenty of the meters whereas I was told by another staff member that they were very short of the meters, which is why I bought mine. Conflicting statements from staff members on the same team. Again; not a confidence booster. Anyway, I am glad I bought my own because, though I am not an expert by any means on these meters, could there be a possibility of contamination or false readings if the meter is used to test different people? I might be totally wrong here, but how many people on the forum have their own individual meter and prefer it that way? Kenny

The meters the hospital uses will be calibrated regularly.. The part that would get "contaminated" would be the test strip. & that only gets used once & disposed of in a bio bin.. Along with the lancet.