Test Strips - Complaint Response from the Dept of Health

[bigbluebouncy]

This is very interesting. I got the standard brushoff reply when I asked about meters and testing on my first 6 monthly appointment after diagnosis. At my recent yearly review when the nurse was pleased with my consistent 5.6% Hba1C I politely pointed out that one of the key ways I've maintained this is because i use a meter and buy my own strips. I may write down my reasons and have a spiel ready for my next appointment, if hopefully I can maintain this, with the rationale as to how and when I use the readings, to see where I'm going right, and what doesn't work for me, to see if it'll change their minds if I ask again for strips on prescription. That's not for another 6 months tho..will watch to see if any developments before then.
Keep up the fight people!

 

[jeangoo]

Does the NICE guideline still apply today with regards to testing strips?

 

[mitsi5959]

hi
i was diagnosed two years as type 2, over that time i have been refused meter and strips, i have been on a diet and lost some weight recently, with the advice of some fantastic people on this site, who advised me to challenge the dn`s decision, using the Nice guidliness, so i have gone in with the facts today, to my suprise there wasnt even a hesitation, DN went and got me a metre and strips, there and then, i told her i had been on a carb free diet and wanted to go low carb, and needed to find out which foods are going to raise my blood sugars, also a meter would benefit me in self manegement of my diabetes.
so dont give up!!!

 

[TonyTruthful]

Sometimes you can work yourself up into a frenzy by testing & worrying. You know a bad diet and loads of carbs brings you sugars up. Getting worked up because you want meters and strips is only going to send your BP up.

T1’s only get meters because there sugars can go dangerously low. The HCP don’t care about the highs.

Focus your energy on other areas such as a good diet and lots of exercise and don’t worry about numbers. Less stress is what you need I’m sure that will make a world of difference.

Peace.

TT

 

[muffy1]

Read your letters about type 2 and not getting a glucose monitor etc. We had an appointment this morning with the doctor to see if she would supply one, and if not would they supply the strips to go in one if we paid for a machine. Short answer is NO to either. " it is not felt necessary anymore to give newly diagnosed type 2 patients a blood glucose monitor. So we disagreed politely and asked how were we too know without a machine what foods pushed his levels up, and seeing as we had no idea as yet which foods he was to eat, and the fact that we had been told to come back in 3 months for a test, surely he needed to keep a record so he could adjust his food to keep it still no tablets and self manage his condition, which is precisely what they are asking him to do. Without a machine how do we achieve that. Her answer was " the guidelines today say a blood test every 3 months by the surgery is better as it will tell them what the levels have been in those last 3 months. We used all the arguments that are on this forum and got nowhere. We live in Wales were we do not pay for prescriptions. We are on a large amount of tablets through no fault of our own. They are tablets that we have to take to stay alive. I don't think anyone should have to pay for drugs that keep them alive. I do object most strongly to folks getting free prescriptions for things they can buy over the counter and those that they choose to take themselves, and those that can easily afford to pay for there prescriptions. Everything else is means tested, but not this. I asked for a direct honest answer to my question of " is this simply a case of funding by the health board / surgery ?" Answer. " yes it is"
Now we have to go buy one. It is indeed a post code lottery just like cancer treatment. I have friends in Essex who are given a machine and everything they need.
The only thing we achieved this morning was to bring the appointment to see the dietician forward from 6 weeks time to this monday.
Mufy

 

[AndBreathe]

Muffy - completely, off topic, but what sort of drugs do you consider people choose to take (as opposed to keeping them alive)?

I have no axe to grind here as fortunately, I take absolutely no medication, and nor does my 67 year old partner.

 

[Coventina]

I have just received a letter out of the blue from GP (without any review meeting or discussion) telling me they are stopping my blood testing strips [I am Type 2) - and in a rather patronising tone - telling me that that it is better for me to have an hba1c once a year! By testing BG, I have reduced my longer term hba1c to 45 without medication, purely because I am able to identify which foods spike my blood sugars from day to day. I have been taken off metformin because I have gained BG control through diet AND monitoring. I'm so depressed now - how am I supposed to maintain BG good control without using the positive, self - informed, drug-free, effective regime I have had for the last two years and more? I took responsibility for my self and my health and now they are denying me access to this without warning or discussion.

 

[jack412]

save pennies in the short term and cost pounds long term, it's political and not in the interest of the public
codefree from amazon uk seems what a lot go for, you can also go direct with a code and get a bit cheaper

 

[Mommayorkie]

SOMEONE ABOVE SAID "on the negative side, the GP can "lose" any justification simply by objecting that testing is not in our best interests as it can be counter productive and cause depression and anxiety"..
I too am not allowed test strips. i use codefree which are cheapest i can find. but as costs of food/fuel etc keeps going up i dont know how long i can afford to buy those.At £7 for 50strips.(eBay).. they are much cheaper by half of any others ive seen.but i can only afford to use for FBS. which helps a little but doesn't help for rest of day and Hb1Ac being done only 3 monthly (in fact its more like 6 monthly here) is no help at all. it still doesn't tell you what your day to day results are.an average surely is not as good as a more accurate one taken 3-4 times a day. I am already depressed. no help from the surgery except to go on Metformin SR.AFTER steroids had sent my FBS soaring back end of last year.but had come back down to 7 again. (before that was between 3.5-5.5 on diet only)was ok on 1 but not 2. it started my IBS off.so back on 1 now.INS did stop after that. recently found my breathing getting worse (i have asthma/COPD).. found out my co-codamol could be to blame...i take those for spinal spondylosis...after 3 days without (with a good amount of pain because of no painkillers) my IBS started again. i no longer know what to eat. or do. confined to the house due to the IBS. seeing diabetic nurse but not till next friday. dare not leave the house because of the IBS and pain.... yes a lot of things going on there...but i feel that had i been given strips i could have controlled it better. and therefore controlled the IBS., so many things i cant eat due to the latter. low carbing made me feel ill.

 

[schreis]

my daughter is 5, they refused her prescription once, I wrote a letter to the gp with detailed info on her tests etc and what they supply us didn't even cover normal testing times the nurses had asked us to test her at. never mind the extra we have to do on her.

 

[hayu]

Its interesting reading all these dits on GPS refusal to give out monitoring strips I knew nothing about until I put in a prescription for some and seem to get the same answer as everyone else seems to be getting, its time the Gov . stepped in and got it sorted.

 

[bluejeans98]

Well done Steve!

I wonder if when type 2 patients discuss this issue with their gp, and their request for test strips is refused, what would the doctors response be when you tell him/her the following:

'As I have put across to you the importance to me in having test strips to help monitor and control my diabetes effectively, and without the possibility of future complications. There by, your refusal to issue these on prescription to help me to self-manage my condition, I can hold you personally responsible for any problems that I may incur in the future due to unstable diabetes control'. Make sure that you tell them that you will be putting this in writing, keeping copies for yourself and your family.

I am sure that many other intellectual members that are type 2 can put across a more worthy example than the one I have wrote here, perhaps you could all get together and write a letter together with words to that effect, where by other type 2's who are refused test strips can use this to argue their case.

Just a thought I had, but may be worth considering.

Regards

Nigel

My GP has refused me test strips and a meter, Said I didn't need one. I newly diagnosed as type 2 6 weeks ago. I was eating Shredded wheat for breakfast every morning. After I got my meter I found out this was spiking my BS taking me up to 12 and 13 mmol. I had told my doctor I was eating shredded wheat due to the low sugar levels. Without the meter I bought myself I would never have known this. THIS IS THE REASON WHY they should supply BS monitoring strips to everyone.

 

[tim2000s]

I think the worst bit about test strips is that many GPs are not really aware of how to manage diabetes. There seems to have been a move to taking diabetes care away from the Endocrinology clinics into the GP surgery. This works okay if their is a Diabetic Nurse aligned to the surgery who can assist with newly diagnosed patients, but is a huge fail when there isn't due to the lack of knowledge.

I think that the Blood Test Strips issue is a symptom of this, and comes about because they are easy to cut back on to save surgery/PCT costs, in spite of the mantra that better balance reduces long term NHS costs. It is (unfortunately) a short term view on what is a much longer term problem.

If the NHS were truly working on this effectively, rather than give us the option as to which monitoring solution we want, they'd have a properly negotiated blanket solution at a hugely discounted cost saving themselves loads of money. But that's the issue with the PCTs. There is optionality, which unfortunately increases costs.

I don't disagree that if you need to manage blood sugars, you need to be able to test them effectively, and it doesn't matter what Type you are!

 

[Mommayorkie]

we do have a diabetic team at our surgery. the nurse practitioner is head diabetic nurse. but her and the female dr who has recently taken over as diabetic doc from the long term one we had who has retired, both seem to want to shove people straight onto metformin. 2 tablets ,immediately they are diagnosed. for all i was told i was just borderline, i was told they were putting me on 2 tablets a day. i have a number of other conditions so chances were more tablets, more complications. i said no. i would try diet first.that worked. except they would not and still wont give me strips.can only afford to test FBS.bought own meter etc. a year ago i landed up having to have 4 courses of steroid tablets in 4 months.FBS shot up. from 3.5 to 12. without strips i would not have known that.their answer was not more strips/testing but after waiting till the steroids were out of my system they then put me on 1 metformin a day (being careful because of my IBS) then 2 months later 2 daily. they informed me if i was ok on them they would up it more. i said no you wont. why, if im only borderline normally? surely it only needs increasing if i have to go on steroids again or bloods go up for some reason as i get older? the docs answer? well we dont know what your bloods are doing rest of each day. i was disgusted... told her no you wont, yu wont give me strips to find out, you would rather shove pills down my throat without knowing what they are doing to me.had to stop the 2nd metformin anyway. it did affect my IBS. so only on 1 now. told the nurse i had stopped the 2nd one. she said ok. fine.and that was that. if it was fine then why put me on 2 in first place? obviously wasnt needed. did some research and discovered its cheaper to give you loads of tablets than strips for the only meters they can prescribe. (I use SD Codefree meter and strips and the strips are only £7 for 50 as opposed to over £20 for the ones they prescribe...whose ripping the NHS off????)

 

[bluejeans98]

we do have a diabetic team at our surgery. the nurse practitioner is head diabetic nurse. but her and the female dr who has recently taken over as diabetic doc from the long term one we had who has retired, both seem to want to shove people straight onto metformin. 2 tablets ,immediately they are diagnosed. for all i was told i was just borderline, i was told they were putting me on 2 tablets a day. i have a number of other conditions so chances were more tablets, more complications. i said no. i would try diet first.that worked. except they would not and still wont give me strips.can only afford to test FBS.bought own meter etc. a year ago i landed up having to have 4 courses of steroid tablets in 4 months.FBS shot up. from 3.5 to 12. without strips i would not have known that.their answer was not more strips/testing but after waiting till the steroids were out of my system they then put me on 1 metformin a day (being careful because of my IBS) then 2 months later 2 daily. they informed me if i was ok on them they would up it more. i said no you wont. why, if im only borderline normally? surely it only needs increasing if i have to go on steroids again or bloods go up for some reason as i get older? the docs answer? well we dont know what your bloods are doing rest of each day. i was disgusted... told her no you wont, yu wont give me strips to find out, you would rather shove pills down my throat without knowing what they are doing to me.had to stop the 2nd metformin anyway. it did affect my IBS. so only on 1 now. told the nurse i had stopped the 2nd one. she said ok. fine.and that was that. if it was fine then why put me on 2 in first place? obviously wasnt needed. did some research and discovered its cheaper to give you loads of tablets than strips for the only meters they can prescribe. (I use SD Codefree meter and strips and the strips are only £7 for 50 as opposed to over £20 for the ones they prescribe...whose ripping the NHS off????)

Hi Mommayorkie, with the codefree test strips if you buy 5 boxes its one hell of a reduction from £35 to around £25. I will be doing this next pay day. I didn't realise that Metformin only reduces levels by a small amount. I also thought it was a life and death thing. Just goes to show the lack of information from doctors these days.

 

[Mommayorkie]

Hi Mommayorkie, with the codefree test strips if you buy 5 boxes its one hell of a reduction from £35 to around £25. I will be doing this next pay day. I didn't realise that Metformin only reduces levels by a small amount. I also thought it was a life and death thing. Just goes to show the lack of information from doctors these days.

Hi bluejeans98, where on earth do you get them at that price? i buy from ebay or chemist direct. usually.
As far as i know metformin just keeps the levels stable.doesnt help to reduce them. or so i read somewhere.

 

[CollieBoy]

<snip> where on earth do you get them at that price?<snip>.

Direct from the UK distributor http://www.homehealth-uk.com/medical/blood_glucose_monitor_testing.htm

 

[bluejeans98]

Hi bluejeans98, where on earth do you get them at that price? i buy from ebay or chemist direct. usually.
As far as i know metformin just keeps the levels stable.doesnt help to reduce them. or so i read somewhere.

Also from the manufacturer you don't pay VAT as you are diabetic. Very quick service too.

 

[AnnieC]

Y

Muffy - completely, off topic, but what sort of drugs do you consider people choose to take (as opposed to keeping them alive)?

I have no axe to grind here as fortunately, I take absolutely no medication, and nor does my 67 year old partner.

Yes I wonder that as I have not heard of a doctor giving drugs on prescription to someone just because they choose to take them Also I am sure that people who have to pay for their prescriptions would rather pay for things theirself if they are availabe over the counter as that is usually cheaper to do that than pay prescription charges for them

 

[AnnieC]

My husband was given a meter when diagnosed T2 in July and told by the nurse he would get strips on presciption and he was given 50 strips then but his doctor said that they would be stopped after a while. He has not been a big tester as the nurse said he did not need to test every day and he will not do more than she said he should and only does it two or three times a week and he has never done the testing before and after food so the strips he had have lasted him and he did not ask for any more. He gave up all sugar stuff and I see he does not eat to much of the starchy carbs...he is 82 and it is hard for him to give up foods he has eaten all his life
A couple of weeks ago he saw the D nurse after his 3 month blood test. He told her he had only had one lot of strips and she said he was unlikely to get any more because his BG levels were good....he was 7 at the blood test
He never thought any more about it until I went to the chemist this week to pick up my blood pressure tablets and was told there was a prescription for my husband if I wanted to take it Well low and behold it was another 50 strips. He said he will not ask for any more but will just use a Codefree meter instead just to keep an eye on his BG levels