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UK healthcare and meters

tpaz

tpaz

Well-Known Member
Messages
173
Location
Canada
Type of diabetes
Type 1
Treatment type
Other
Dislikes
Cardio exercise
Hi everyone,

I'm not from the UK, but know that most of you on this forum are. I keep reading that T2s aren't provides with a glucometer for testing. Can anyone explain why? This seems a little nuts to me.
 
in one word - money! Nuts? Yes saving a few pennies now but ignoring the huge cost later and then complain they are bankrupt. Let me ask you this, "why do we need more than one blood test a year?" :wacky:
 
The main reason that UK T2s are not provided with meters is because the majority of those diagnosed won't use them. Sad but true. If you can't get 60% of T1s to test only once daily, why do you expect T2s to be any different.

In addition, the use of SMBG in T2 is not understood in the NICE approach. Rather than using it to understand how foods affect blood glucose and build up a picture for self treatment, the advice regarding use of SMBG is much more aligned to T1 and there is therefore little benefit in using it. Until this is recognised and diet is made the primary initial way of dealing with T2, this is highly unlikely to change.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
 
So if 40% of T1,s don't test would that be a good enough reason to deny the other 60% the opportunity. And as the main cost is in the test strips those who don't test will not be likely to be using the strips.
 
JohnEGreen said:
So if 40% of T1,s don't test would that be a good enough reason to deny the other 60% the opportunity. And as the main cost is in the test strips those who don't test will not be likely to be using the strips.
Click to expand...

ahhhh but many still take the strips and sell them on eBay!
 
Bluetit1802 said:
ahhhh but many still take the strips and sell them on eBay!
Click to expand...
So what at least they would be being used by some one who needs them and that is just as much an assumption as I made. If you can get them on prescription what would be the point of buying them on EBay.
 
Hi Im back after a few years absence, my Dr would not allow me to test when I was first diagnosed, so I said right then that means I dont need to bother, take the pills and eat and drink what you want !
Now 3 or 4 years on i have been for result of my latest blood test today, its gone up from 46 to 52 and now they are going to put me onto another pill which will make me prone to Hypos, and I will have to test before i drive on a recording tester and notify the dvla etc etc.
 
Please remember that a forum is for information, educated debate but not arguing!

Meters are inexpensive. A meter and x50 strips can be purchased for less than £15.

As @tim2000s said, T2D's are infamously reluctant to test. I'm unsure of the testing requirements for T2D's but the ones I know are on one test per day. That would work out at a monthly cost of circa £7 typically. You'll pay more for paracetamol or that bottle of wine you don't need.

The NHS is extremely stretched and unfortunately, us T1D's need as many as x10 tests or more per day. So it's no wonder we get this on our prescriptions. What may make you feel a bit off wrt to bad BGL management could ultimately hospitalise or kill us.

Kind regards,
Grant
 
JohnEGreen said:
So what at least they would be being used by some one who needs them and that is just as much an assumption as I made. If you can get them on prescription what would be the point of buying them on EBay.
Click to expand...

Which is saving the eBay buyer some money probably, but at the expense of the NHS who originally supplied them.
(Don't get me wrong, I'm as guilty as the next person for buying strips on eBay)
 
JohnEGreen said:
So if 40% of T1,s don't test would that be a good enough reason to deny the other 60% the opportunity. And as the main cost is in the test strips those who don't test will not be likely to be using the strips.
Click to expand...

You've misunderstood my numbers. 60% or so test less frequently than once daily. 40% or so test more frequently than once daily.
 
I am Type 2 and was diagnosed 10 weeks ago. I disagree with you about 60% would not test. Where did you get that data from? I test before and after meals as well as after introducing new foods to my LCHF diet. My HbA1c level dropped by 52% in 8 weeks as a result of testing. I believe that everybody should be given the choice to test because in the long run, hopefully you can slow down or better still prevent complications and, it would save the NHS and GP surgeries a whole heap of money. In my experience apart from forums and each other we are pretty much on our own so need to take control ourselves and that means self testing.


Sent from my MotoE2(4G-LTE) using Diabetes.co.uk Forum mobile app
 
6cats said:
I am Type 2 and was diagnosed 10 weeks ago. I disagree with you about 60% would not test. Where did you get that data from? I test before and after meals as well as after introducing new foods to my LCHF diet. My HbA1c level dropped by 52% in 8 weeks as a result of testing. I believe that everybody should be given the choice to test because in the long run, hopefully you can slow down or better still prevent complications and, it would save the NHS and GP surgeries a whole heap of money. In my experience apart from forums and each other we are pretty much on our own so need to take control ourselves and that means self testing.


Sent from my MotoE2(4G-LTE) using Diabetes.co.uk Forum mobile app
Click to expand...

I'll have to dig out the research data. The statement comes from a decent source. It also relates to T1s.

I'd be surprised if T2s are really any different, given what I've seen of the offline community.
 
GrantGam1337 said:
Please remember that a forum is for information, educated debate but not arguing!

Meters are inexpensive. A meter and x50 strips can be purchased for less than £15.

As @tim2000s said, T2D's are infamously reluctant to test. I'm unsure of the testing requirements for T2D's but the ones I know are on one test per day. That would work out at a monthly cost of circa £7 typically. You'll pay more for paracetamol or that bottle of wine you don't need.

The NHS is extremely stretched and unfortunately, us T1D's need as many as x10 tests or more per day. So it's no wonder we get this on our prescriptions. What may make you feel a bit off wrt to bad BGL management could ultimately hospitalise or kill us.

Kind regards,
Grant
Click to expand...
Well Grant where shall I start.

Yes meters and strips are cheap - much cheaper than an amputation or blindness! So you tell me why and reluctance isn't a good answer. Why isn't reluctance to test the answer? Well tat is because the doctors tell T2s they do not need to test and actually moan when they find out your are!!

Prior to my remission I was testing as much as you; not sure why you would think a T2 needs to test less. You could just as well run your BG levels high like a T2 and just look for ketones or pick up hypo signs, but you wouldn't so why expect a T2 to do that!

There are quite a lot of T2s on this forum that have been hospitalised with either high or low BG levels just like T1s with high or low BGs. Yes the conditions are different but depending on the severity of T2 not that much.
 
I dont know how many T2's test. However, if i listened to my diabetic nurse, and accepted that there is nothing I can do to alter my blood sugar levels except take the pills, and keep off chocolate, then testing wont tell me anything anyway.

I test to alert me to what I can and cannot eat, and how exercise affects my bs. If I believe my nurse, that what i do and eat dont affect my blood sugars, and that I cannot control my levels, then testing would simply not help. It would give me another figure to get upset about.

BUT if I was informed about what to eat, when, how my choices affect me, and how to use my meter as the compass to take control of my diabetes, then there is a purpose for testing.

So maybe people dont test because, due to the information they receive from their healthcare team, there is no point to it.

And as most of the people polled about whether or not they test are probably in the "uniformed and misled"category, then I can quite see why the testing figure would be low. Why test if you are told it wont help?
 
We're speaking of the majority of T2D's and obviously, from what you've said, you don't fall into that category. You will have to blame the persons on a much higher pay grade than us on that call...

T2D testing requirements will always be lesser than a T1D "on the generic scale" due to lifestyle changes overriding the need for a more rigorous BGL management programme. This is due to lifestyle changes in a T2D having a more dramatic effect "typically" than a T1D.

I'd suggest (and when I say that I do mean it with the best interest at heart) to have a read through the forum and see the benefits of LCHF dieting, diet control in general, lifestyle changes and exercise. All of this before creating a tyrant of arguments that cannot be backed up by collective evidence on the "majority".

Remember as a a team of either T1D or T2D, we're only as strong as the weakest member.

All the best and kind regards,
Grant
 
serenity648 said:
I dont know how many T2's test. However, if i listened to my diabetic nurse, and accepted that there is nothing I can do to alter my blood sugar levels except take the pills, and keep off chocolate, then testing wont tell me anything anyway.

I test to alert me to what I can and cannot eat, and how exercise affects my bs. If I believe my nurse, that what i do and eat dont affect my blood sugars, and that I cannot control my levels, then testing would simply not help. It would give me another figure to get upset about.

BUT if I was informed about what to eat, when, how my choices affect me, and how to use my meter as the compass to take control of my diabetes, then there is a purpose for testing.

So maybe people dont test because, due to the information they receive from their healthcare team, there is no point to it.

And as most of the people polled about whether or not they test are probably in the "uniformed and misled"category, then I can quite see why the testing figure would be low. Why test if you are told it wont help?
Click to expand...
Unfortunately there are still regions in the UK and rest of the world who don't have proactive diabetes management teams looking out for those less fortunate like us.

If you, and you do, think that your DSN is giving you bad advice. Or, advice that is incorrect. Then it is, unfortunately, up to you to come to the forum and get the advice that you need.

There is a very good reason why many GP's advise their patients to come here. Because diabetics will always know more about themselves than any non-diabetic can advise.

Kind regards,
Grant
 
I don't think @tim2000s has suggested anything like type 2s are infamously reluctant to test. But he has said that approximately 60% of type 1s (who are all told that we should test at least 4 times a day) test less than once a day & made a perfectly reasonable deduction that, if that's the case for type 1s, there's no reason to assume it would be different for type 2s.

So maybe, the better question is, why should the engaged & proactive type 2s who are asking for test strips, precisely so they can work out the lifestyle changes that benefit them, be denied strips on script?

I'm pretty sure the answer is a very unsatisfactory £££
 
@GrantGam1337 you are generalising so much that your points do not make a coherent argument. A T1 and T2 testing requirement is actually no different and is a personal choice. I know of a few T1s that test less than me even now.

Oh and I am me and my control requirements are mine and have nothing to do with every other T2 including those that can't be bothered and eat themselves to death without realising.
 
GrantGam1337 said:
Unfortunately there are still regions in the UK and rest of the world who don't have proactive diabetes management teams looking out for those less fortunate like us.

If you, and you do, think that your DSN is giving you bad advice. Or, advice that is incorrect. Then it is, unfortunately, up to you to come to the forum and get the advice that you need.

There is a very good reason why many GP's advise their patients to come here. Because diabetics will always know more about themselves than any non-diabetic can advise.

Kind regards,
Grant
Click to expand...
Do many GP's advise their patients to come here?

Anyway, that wasnt my point. My point was that, given the usual NHS=backed advice about what to eat etc, testing will not help anyone who hasnt been instructed in how a meter can help them make different food choices.

Its a bit like being given a computer, with no manual or softwear. The potential for good is there, but without the information to use it affectively, it isnt going to do any good.
 
Not on this forum to argue, that was never my purpose of joining.

All I am saying is that if you are Diabetic (regardless of types) BGL testing should be something that is taken seriously. And if the stats add up (as suggested by forum moderators in prior posts) then I fully stand by the rationale of why meters aren't provided. Remember, we're all judged as a majority, regardless of your ailment.

All I can do as a proactive Diabetic is try and give the best advice I can. If you want to pick holes in that then go ahead. But I'll say one thing:

Im not here to criticise, generalise or stereotype. But I will stand here and say what the broader picture is.

All the best,
Grant
 
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