I must have been really lucky with my diabetic care! I was given a monitor, strips and lancets by our practice nurse, on my next appointment with my GP the following week he put the strips and lancets on my repeat prescription. I was testing 4-5 times per day from September to November. I had my 2nd HBA1c done in early November, results were a million miles better than my first one - my GP advised that I didn't need to test as often (having problem with sort fingertips!) if I didn't want to, but if I wanted to keep up the regime, then that was ok.
I've had no problem in getting either strips or lancets on prescription (to date!) and continue to test at least twice per day.
I was under the impression that being diabetic and entitled to free prescriptions covered not just the medication, but all the peripherals required (bg monitors, strips, lancets, etc.) as well - apparently not! :?