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Refused BG testing strips.

TallGiraffe

TallGiraffe

Member
Messages
23
Location
Coventry
Type of diabetes
Type 1
Treatment type
Insulin
I am so angry. Just been to pick up my repeat prescription, of which one of my items should have been 2x boxes of 50 BG testing strips. Get home to find no test strips. Check my online account. Rejected for BG testing strips, with no reason given.

Last prescription was 22nd May, latest order was put in 1st June. That is 10 days between. I have to get new testing strips every 14 days otherwise I run the risk of running out.

I am so angry that a Dr surgery can refuse me access to testing strips. I am not testing my BG for fun.

Does anyone know how I can get any help with this? I have asked them before if I can put my prescription up to 4x 50 strips, but I was told that due to NHS cuts I am not allowed. This means I have to go every two weeks to collect more. I find this an absolute joke.

Any ideas? I know there was things on twitter/email about refused access to testing strips a month or so ago??

Thanks for any help.
 
TallGiraffe said:
I am so angry. Just been to pick up my repeat prescription, of which one of my items should have been 2x boxes of 50 BG testing strips. Get home to find no test strips. Check my online account. Rejected for BG testing strips, with no reason given.

Last prescription was 22nd May, latest order was put in 1st June. That is 10 days between. I have to get new testing strips every 14 days otherwise I run the risk of running out.

I am so angry that a Dr surgery can refuse me access to testing strips. I am not testing my BG for fun.

Does anyone know how I can get any help with this? I have asked them before if I can put my prescription up to 4x 50 strips, but I was told that due to NHS cuts I am not allowed. This means I have to go every two weeks to collect more. I find this an absolute joke.

Any ideas? I know there was things on twitter/email about refused access to testing strips a month or so ago??

Thanks for any help.
Click to expand...

Hi
Interesting how different doctors are. I get 200 at a time, each month. I suggest you get your consultant to write a letter.
 
I am angry too for you. It's difficult enough balancing everything when it's straight forward. Let alone when barriers are put up which are totally unnecessary. I really hope this gets resolved for you. Certainly, collecting a prescription every 2 weeks is avoidable and they should, as part of good medicine management, have spotted that sooner and organised at least a monthly script. No benefit to them at all having to sign one that often. I'd be pushing to find out why they rejected it without even telling you too.
Best of luck!
 
My friend is type1, at the same surgery as me, can now only get 2 tubs of strips per month.
As she is a well controlled diabetic, she like many t1,s here, have now been referred back to GP for monitoring instead of the diabetic clinic at the hospital.
The reason give by the surgery is, as she is well controlled, the surgery are drastically cutting back on strips because of the cost
 
Do you drive? If so you are now unable to until you get strips. I'd suggest you go to the gps first thing tomorrow and sort this out and refuse to leave until you have. Get them to call all the way up if they claim this is coming from somewhere higher. What right do they have to deny you the tools to prevent complications and live a normal life, ban you from driving and make it more difficult to manage an already difficulty condition. Take that letter too. If you have anyone to take with you for support take them.
 
ally1 said:
My friend is type1, at the same surgery as me, can now only get 2 tubs of strips per month.
As she is a well controlled diabetic, she like many t1,s here, have now been referred back to GP for monitoring instead of the diabetic clinic at the hospital.
The reason give by the surgery is, as she is well controlled, the surgery are drastically cutting back on strips because of the cost
Click to expand...
Wow that is just not right, how can they justify even doing that? It's a mad world.
 
katmcd said:
I am angry too for you. It's difficult enough balancing everything when it's straight forward. Let alone when barriers are put up which are totally unnecessary. I really hope this gets resolved for you. Certainly, collecting a prescription every 2 weeks is avoidable and they should, as part of good medicine management, have spotted that sooner and organised at least a monthly script. No benefit to them at all having to sign one that often. I'd be pushing to find out why they rejected it without even telling you too.
Best of luck!
Click to expand...
They will feel my wrath tomorrow haha!
 
azure said:
@TallGiraffe It makes me so angry when this happens! It's totally ignorant.

Contact your DSN, but in the meantime phone the surgery and remind them of this letter:

https://www.gov.uk/government/uploa.../Safe-care-of-people-with-type-1-diabetes.pdf

You need enough strips to keep you safe and manage your condition. Think how many you actually need a month and insist they change your prescription to that amount per month.
Click to expand...
Thank you for this!! I will definitely be sending this to them and making a formal complaint!!
 
tigger said:
Do you drive? If so you are now unable to until you get strips. I'd suggest you go to the gps first thing tomorrow and sort this out and refuse to leave until you have. Get them to call all the way up if they claim this is coming from somewhere higher. What right do they have to deny you the tools to prevent complications and live a normal life, ban you from driving and make it more difficult to manage an already difficulty condition. Take that letter too. If you have anyone to take with you for support take them.
Click to expand...
Fortunately I dont need to drive at the moment! Its just ridiculous how they even think it is a justified thing to do, We aren't testing for no good reason! Gahh
 
I was in the same position with my daughter and her consultant wrote to the gp highlighting the NICE guidance for type 1s - i now get 200 a time. The guidance is clear. Good luck
 
I realize you get your strips "free" in the UK via NHS. My federal employee health insurance gets me no strips. But I buy them online 600 at a time for about $120 USD. Meters free. And the good part is all the bottles of 50 strips have the same key that goes into the meter so the strips are interchangeable with my 3 meters (home, work, car). That's like 80 cents/day. Cheap. think about it.
 
TallGiraffe said:
Any ideas? I know there was things on twitter/email about refused access to testing strips a month or so ago??
Click to expand...

Inform your diabetes consultant (if under the care of a hospital clinic), a letter/email from them is usually enough to get your GP to prescribe more test strips, this is the action I took when my bg strips were reduced.
 
noblehead said:
Inform your diabetes consultant (if under the care of a hospital clinic), a letter/email from them is usually enough to get your GP to prescribe more test strips, this is the action I took when my bg strips were reduced.
Click to expand...
I was told to do the exact thing by my DSN 2 weeks back, it is cheaper to supply test strips than it is for you to end up in A&E. Fingers crossed for you
 
Print out the NICE guidelines and also point out that giving 2 weekly scripts is causing double the time spent by staff isssuing scripts and your wasting valuable time from your life every two weeks.

You are effectively getting 200 a month which I would say is pretty good, but they should not be imposing two week collection of scripts.
 
I'm having similar issues where my prescription length is too long and if I waited until it ran out I'd have no strips, needles, lancets etc for days even a week at times. I have to order online sometimes just single items so I'm often at the pharmacy twice a weeks. Worst thing is they keep messing up my prescriptions and ordering things I don't need just because I haven't ordered them for a while. For example last week I ordered a new glucagon set, novorapid, a sharps box and needles. When I went to the pharmacy they said the prescription was made for glucose gels, sharps box and glargine. I had waited 4 days for this arrive and was running low. Called the doctors who then did it again 4 hours later but it was still wrong and half wasn't electronically sent over and I had to go to the doctors to get the paper prescription. They didn't give me needles so I orders again and they lost it so I ended up with just one needle left pleading down the phone to the receptionist to get doctor to sort it. I was told it would be later that evening before it was ready so I said it was unacceptable and that as I am pregnant they were endangering my baby. They had it ready in 20 minutes after that.

I've booked an appointment to discuss with the doctor. The pharmacist has been great and even once just gave me strips as the doctors said my prescription was locked in the system and wouldn't be resolved that day. I was out of strips so she just gave me them assuming that at some point the prescription would appear. Good job they know me as a very regular customer.
 
Pharmacists are able to provide an 'emergency supply' of any normally-prescribed item to a patient if there is a problem with a prescription. This is usually enough for 2 or 3 days. I have only needed this service twice in 53 years (!) but as my dad was a pharmacist, for the first 20 years he handled everything and I never ran short of any item.

I seriously think that you need to switch your GP. Ask around and see which surgery friends and neighbours use. If you know someone local with a long-standing health condition, ask which surgery they use and how efficient they are. Best of luck with that appointment. If you aren't satisfied with what you are told, vote with your feet.
 
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