Diabetes.co.uk PETITION for better access to blood testing

[benedict]

Please sign our petition today which campaigns for better access to blood glucose testing for people with type 2 diabetes.

We will need to reach thousands of signatures to make an impact and with your support we have genuine chance of doing this.

To get this issue talked about in Parliament -send your voice to Downing St here:

http://epetitions.direct.gov.uk/petitions/20537

Together we can make them listen.

PS -Don't forget to check your email after signing the petition - the government will send an email asking you to confirm the signature

 

[benedict]

Re: Diabetes.co.uk PETITION for better access to blood testi

The numbers are climbing -we've passed 500 signatures

Let's hit 1,000 by the end of today

 

[benedict]

Re: Diabetes.co.uk PETITION for better access to blood testi

We're very close to 1,000 signatures now

If you've not signed the petition yet, please join the rest of us by signing it and sharing the link with your family and friends

 

[benedict]

Re: Diabetes.co.uk PETITION for better access to blood testi

Over 2,000 signatures now, the campaign is beginning to gather pace :clap: :clap: :thumbup:

 

[benedict]

Re: Diabetes.co.uk PETITION for better access to blood testi

If you have ideas for how to get more people to sign and share the petition, please share the ideas here. They'll be very much appreciated.

In the first week we collected over 2,000 signatures. The next milestone is 5,000. With World Diabetes Day coming up, there's every excuse to get the petition out there.

 

[benedict]

Re: Diabetes.co.uk PETITION for better access to blood testi

This week our petition has reached over 3,000 signatures

This Christmas, please ask your family to support the petition by visiting and signing it.

Even better, if they could also share the petition around their friends and colleagues in the new year, that would make a great difference.

The following link will take them directly to it
http://www.diabetes.co.uk/petition

 

[lister]

Re: Diabetes.co.uk PETITION for better access to blood testi

i signed a while ago but have put the link on another forum i belong to for rabbits hope it helps

 

[Sindri]

Re: Diabetes.co.uk PETITION for better access to blood testi

signed and stuck the link on my facebook page.

 

[smeatons]

Re: Diabetes.co.uk PETITION for better access to blood testi

Can someone explain to me the last statement:

It is recognised that ongoing testing on certain medication regimes may need to be provided on a reduced basis according to the requirements of the individual patient.

thanks,
David

 

[Grazer]

Re: Diabetes.co.uk PETITION for better access to blood testi

Hi David! I think this is the art of showing the government that we're not asking for unlimited funding at a time of great fiscal restraint, and at a time when the costs of treating diabetes are huge to the NHS. People on potentially hypo inducing drugs, like insulin and probably the Glic you're on, obviously need to test very frequently. People like me, on the other hand, who are on diet only need to test a lot initially to establish how food types, in different quantities, cooked in different ways and eaten at different times, affect them. Thereafter, there's no point in testing multiple times a day, at great cost, for the sake of it when we know what the result of that testing will be. It's a matter of testing now and again when you try something different, or to make sure things aren't changing. Rather than trying to propose limits by type of diabetic, however, it's probably better to petition on the basis of what the individual patient needs whilst demonstrating an awareness of the need to manage costs.
That's my view anyway!

 

[smeatons]

Re: Diabetes.co.uk PETITION for better access to blood testi

ok, thanks that to me is just plain common sense. I can certainly sign up to that!

regards,
David

 

[Grazer]

Re: Diabetes.co.uk PETITION for better access to blood testi

ok, thanks that to me is just plain common sense. I can certainly sign up to that!

regards,
David

Glad about that as I helped write it!
So sign, and get all your mates, family and colleagues to sign. We need as many signatures as possible!
Cheers now!

 

[Kasia]

Re: Diabetes.co.uk PETITION for better access to blood testi

I'm a non-insulin-dependent Type 2 who has battled with my South West GP practice over the Primary Care Trust's policy to stop non-insulin-dependent Type 2s from testing blood glucose. The lead GP disagrees with the PCT.

I rang the Primary Care Trust's pharmacist who claimed that Type 2s taking Metformin 'cannot go hypo'.

This is a money-saving myth perpetrated by the NHS.

Yes, sadly - Type 2s can and do go hypo.

It happens rarely and it's horrible.

I was instructed to starve for a colonoscopy with general anaesthetic. I went hypo and became very ill.

What the hell would have happened if I'd been elderly and living alone?

Good luck with the petition!

Kasia

 

[Grazer]

Re: Diabetes.co.uk PETITION for better access to blood testi

Good luck with the petition!

OK, but did you sign it! :thumbup:

 

[Kasia]

Re: Diabetes.co.uk PETITION for better access to blood testi

Yes - I'd already signed it. Am also agitating within my Primary Care Trust (which this site forbids me to name) for non-insulin-dependent diabetics to have access to test strips. It's interesting to discover that my GP practice argued for non-insulin-dependent diabetics to continue to have test-strips but the GP practice was in their words 'stamped on' by the GP.

One argument that NHS managers use to stop us having test-strips is the myth that NIDDs can't 'go hypo'. This may be true so long as we are eating. When we fast over a period of time - e.g. during a stomach bug or before a general anaesthetic then we CAN go hypo.

 

[borofergie]

Re: Diabetes.co.uk PETITION for better access to blood testi

One argument that NHS managers use to stop us having test-strips is the myth that NIDDs can't 'go hypo'. This may be true so long as we are eating. When we fast over a period of time - e.g. during a stomach bug or before a general anaesthetic then we CAN go hypo.

Yes - but - so can every other person, whether diabetic or not. Are you suggesting that everyone should get access to test strips, including non-diabetics?

 

[viviennem]

Re: Diabetes.co.uk PETITION for better access to blood testi

Non-insulin dependent Type 2s who are on pancreas stimulating medications can certainly go hypo and should be testing too.

Non-diabetics get a liver dump when they go too low, so have less reason to test for hypos. So do some or even many Type 2s. What about the ones who don't? I test more to watch the high numbers not the low ones (though I keep an eye on that too). But all Type 2s should be encouraged to self-educate themselves as to what foods they can safely eat.

Viv 8)

 

[Grazer]

Re: Diabetes.co.uk PETITION for better access to blood testi

Hmm. ALL type 2's liver dump if necessary unless they have some other ailment as far as I know. This is simply the liver releasing glycogen into the blood as a reaction to receiving glucagon from the alpha cells in the pancreas. if they didn't, they'd run out of glucose and thus energy as soon as the small reserve in the muscles runs out. The issue as we know is that too much insulin not balanced with food takes us lower than we can handle. Even those drugs that stimulate the pancreas to release more insulin don't normally give us severe issues I believe, it's more usually only with direct insulin injections because of the excess quantity over that needed that can be taken. That's my understanding - not wishing to disagree with either of two of my favourite posters! Don't think I am? Keep trucking!

 

[Pilgrim22]

Re: Diabetes.co.uk PETITION for better access to blood testi

So far, had no problem getting as many repeat perscriptions for self testing as I need, but have no idea about what lies in the future, signed and put link on facebook page.

 

[AdrianBaughan]

Re: Diabetes.co.uk PETITION for better access to blood testi

Signed and posted to Facebook and friends. I find it ridiculous that non insulin users can't test. I had a discussion with my clinic nurse and she admitted it's basically a cost cutting exercise. She let me have two boxes of strips for the year as I am now on a touch of Gliclazide, but clearly this is not enough. Yes I can and have experienced hypoglycemia at a low level, but I will continue to fund my own testing programme as I think it is vital to general understanding not even because of the risk of hypo's.