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Type 1 Applying for Insulin pump on the NHS

S

SLPDAD

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2
Good evening

My daughter was diagnosed type 1 in February. We’ve managed since on the pen injections. However we now feel we could manage her BG levels more efficiently with a pump. Just wondered if anyone knew what to include in the letter when applying through the NHS?

Thank you so much.

Scarlet’s Dad.
 
Dear Scarlet's dad, the criteria for getting a pump vary from CCG to CCG but they are rationed so Scarlet might need to jump some hoops e.g. does she have lots of hypos without warning, does she do lots of sports or have poor control or she eats inconsistently? If you have a sympathetic nurse and consultant this helps I've found. I got mine because I exercise a lot and the pump allows for plenty of flexibility in insulin levels.
Pumps last 4 years and the cost of the device plus consumables is £3000 I believe which ends up being a lot more costly than multiple daily jabs (MDI) however most users do fall in love, if that's the right way of talking about some medical tech!) so it is worth fighting for.
I think it is a good time to get diagnosed as she'll benefit from the better and better tech, including closed loop systems, that is going to be more mainstream soon.
Back to the pump here's the NICE (National Institute of Clinical Excellence)guidance on the matter. This is still a matter of CCG policy though as with flash glucose monitoring:
ttps://www.nice.org.uk/guidance/ta151/documents/diabetes-insulin-pump-therapy-final-appraisal-determination2
 
Thank you so much for taking the time to reply. The information was very useful. Her BG has been good since diagnosis. HbA1C has improved every check up since February. However the last 6 weeks have been difficult. She has just started nursery. We’ve had a lot of Hypos we can only give 0.5 with the own which doesn’t help either. We see the diabetes team again tomorrow. We shall see what they think. Thank you again. I am so grateful. Such a great platform for everyone to work together on. All the best.

Scarlet’s Dad.
 
You may find that if 0.5u is too big a dose for her, that they’ll consider a pump. Mine does doses as small as 0.05u which means you can really finely tune mealtime boluses and corrections - I don’t need to let it run higher in order to do a correction now, and that makes a huge difference to my management. How old is Scarlet?

If you google the name of your CCG and “pump criteria” you may get some info more relevant to your area - good luck with your team tomorrow!
 
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