Hi Robert,
You are not alone. The whole of Gloucestershire has gone down this path.
Yes it's a cost saving exercise first and foremost. The Glos. NHS Trust are hoping to save £800,000 to £1,000,000 a year by prescribing only the Jazz test strips. They are roughly half the price of the competition. No wonder they want everybody on this meter!
I have been using this new Jazz meter for a few months now.
I had been using the Medisense meters for about 20 years prior to that and found them very reliable even under extreme conditions. To me my meter is something I cannot live without. I have pitifully few warning signs so without a meter I would be flying blind.
I am all in favour of the Trust trying to save money, but do not like being told categorically that I had to ditch my preferred choice of meter for the new one. I had two (one as a spare at work). I have bought these with my own money in an effort to control my diabetes as well as possible.
Now that I have been on the Jazz for a while, I feel I can give it a reasonably fair assessment.
Plus points:
Stores lots of results and these can be easily downloaded to my computer for further analysis.
Navigation of the meter menus is fairly intuitive, but the Up/Down keys are the opposite to all my previous meters
Supposedly more accurate because of the strict conditions required for viable test results
Similar size to my previous meter
Telephone Support very good at the manufacturer, though there is too much emphasis on accuracy and not enough on reliability
No calibration required (don't they all do this now anyway?)
Minus points
The meal time tags on the meter are not user definable
Meter does not work at all outside the narrow operating temperature range (What are you expected to do when working outside in cold weather or cycling to work in sub-zero temperatures?)
Frequently gives errors E1, E4 and occasionally E6 and thus increases the number of strips used
Finger pricking device totally inadequate for people with tough skin on their hands
(I have changed to using the thicker than normal gauge lancets but still cannot get a decent sample even on the maximum setting)
I have compared results side by side with my old meter but this is not a good indication of whether either meter is working correctly
Results can be markedly different.
In general I would say the Jazz gives higher readings at the high end (15.0MMol/l +) but deceivingly unexpected results when at the low end (less than 3.0MMol/l).
Given my loss of warnings a reading is of utmost importance to me, so given the choice, I would rather have a reading + or -10% of anything, than no result at all so I can take appropriate action.
Other comments
Before being changed over to the Jazz, I was considering the AccuCheck Pro Expert as ideally I want to have a meter that will do the rather complex calculations of dose adjustment for eating, state of health and planned exercise.
There is a formula that you can use to calculate a dose to adjust for your pre-meal BG level, anticipated CHO2 meal intake, state of health and expected exercise for the next couple of hours.
At the moment I am estimating this on a Ratio of 1:10 (1 unit of Humalog:10g of CHO2), and that 1 unit will lower my BG reading by about 2.5MMol/l when at rest. My weight is 70 kg. I usually take around 60-70g of CHO2 for a main meal and my insulin pen will deliver 1/2 units of insulin. If I am going to play a couple of hours of badminton, I would reduce my insulin by 1.5 to 2 units and possibly take a little extra CHO2. If I am going to sit and watch TV all evening I might take an extra unit. I normally take 18 units of Lantus at night and 5.5 units per main meal.
The AccuCheck Pro Expert could greatly assist with these calculations. That is another meter that Glos. NHS Trust will fund under the formulary.
Unfortunately you cannot change to that meter unless you have first done the REACCT course (Re-education and Carbohydrate Counting Training). I have done Part 1 of the course (1/2 day) and the 2nd half is in a month's time.
I shall then be requesting a move to my preferred choice of meter.
I do about 8-10 tests per day, so I am a high test strip usage person, but I consider prevention infinitely preferable to cure and believe frequent monitoring is vital to my health, safe driving and everything else I do.
I have had diabetes 40+ years.
Silas
