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Being forced to change my meter.

Oldvatr

Expert
Messages
8,453
Type of diabetes
Type 2
Treatment type
Tablets (oral)
My local Care Commissioning Group has written to all diabetics in their care stating that they will in future only support certain meters. The reason given is probably true - ongoing cost of test strips and lancets. We are to select one of the following meters:

Glucozen Auto
Spirit Tee2
Neon Diagnostics Finetest Lite
Apollo Superchcck 2

Does anyone have any experience on any of these? They are total unknowns to me

It seems Amazon is having difficulty offerering the Glucozen, the Neon, or the Apollo test strips, So I wouild be reliant on the surgery providing them or go to importer for private purchase if surgery withdraws all support,

From what I can glean, none of these has a backlight function, or ketone capability. The Apollo is apparently difficult to shut up. The Neon and Apollo both seem to be Plasma equivalent calibration. so will give results 12% higher than my current meter, Only the Spirit is claiming adherence to the latest ISO standard (2015)

The website for Glucozen is sadly lacking contact info or support line. The tech description is just bullet points, and was last updated in Mar 2015. Not impressed.

Edit to correct, Neon Diagnostics bgl system is Finetest not Finest, NHS spellchecker needs updating.
 
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I'd suggest you go back to the CCG and ask them to provide details of the ISO certification of the meters.

I'd also ask them to provide the accuracy information they must have if offering meters to end users, as you want to make an informed decision.

If they can't provide either piece of information then I'd go back and ask how they arrived at the selection as no proper evaluation seems to have been done and they are putting health at risk.
 

From my experience with CCG on another matter this kind of thing does not surprise me. The only thing I can liken this mob to and would say is a more appropriate name for then is a 'politburo' Made up of cronies and far more interested in their own preservation and status than the opinions and needs of the public in their area. I'd put a lot of their members up against a wall and shot, political rant over I do hope you get this sorted
 
Actually the CCG seems to have a financial tie in with with of these meter sellers. They certainly seem to sell them. I was looking for sources of the consumables, and my county CCG was one and Diabetes,co,uk was another.
 
I don't have a problem so long as the meters are reliable and do the job. I am not wedded to my present supplier, but I am comfortable with their meter. I can support my practice in trying to save money, in fact I have just reduced a couple of meds off my scrip. But I get close to hypo quite often at the moment, so I need their continued supply, OR ELSE I GO ONTO INSULIN and cost them a whole load more.......! I cannot contact them till after the weekend, but I hope to have done more research by then. Of course, this change in meter will enable me to continue to get scrip strips, so it is no panic.
 
Think this is a good start
http://spirit-healthcare.co.uk/site...-CCG-Successful-Implementation-Case-Study.pdf

Am about to test their claim for 24/7 support line........
Edit to update: it works, it is a manned phoneline even at this late hour, but I got the night porter. Was able to leave a message to get someone to call me tomorrow. Their computers were active, and able to log my call. We'll see,,,, Looking potential winner, but need some nerdy bits answered first. You know me!!!!
 
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Oldvatr said:
My local Care Commissioning Group
Click to expand...
I like how you wrote that without abbreviations it to CCG. It took me a long time to find out what "CCG" meant, coming from Scotland - we don't have such a thing.

Btw, I reiterate what @tim2000s has said, and I think he posted this pdf a while back. All the meters you mentioned, I've never heard of. Whatever the cost of the strips associated (and challenge them for documented evidence), you may want to produce this to your GP as a combat their financial standpoint.
 

Attachments

Interesting...... I just found the evidence that a CCG used to identify which meters to recommend . The cheapest was the SD Codefree, but that never made the selection list. The next 4 in ascending cost are the same ones suggested to me by my CCG. So why did the Codefree not make the grade - it was the cheapest. There is no clues in the report I have just reviewed

Edit to add: Apparently the SD was eliminated because they did not provide requested evidence.
 
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The report said they had no contact from a number of manufactures including codefree.
 
Thank you, the report I unearthed did actually use the same figures as in your pdf, so I have to agree with their financial argument, Certainly, the new meters I am being offered are cheaper to run than the one I currently use, so I cannot put forward a good counter argument to my CCG. (who it turns out is my own practice managers). I believe we are now at ISO (2015) not 2013, so the pdf is not quite up to date, Only 1 of the 4 on offer to me claims to meet the latest standard.

I will miss the HI / LO warning facility on my current meter, but then I should know from the reading without needing a robot to flash warnings in my face. The ability to test for ketones will not be missed by me since I have never used that facility. I use ketostix anyway, and dietary ketones rarely show on them, I have used USB upload to PC, but its not essential to me since the software that goes with it usually isn't up to much, and I hand log my data anyway. Not sure what else I would miss.

I will benefit from cheaper strips in the event that my GP withdraws them from my scrip, so no major upset there.

Edit to correct: Apparently the ISO remains at 2013 with compliance mandated in UK by May 2016. The FDA have rejectd the ISO standards, and have got their own approval standard (draft 2015) and so far only 48% of bgm certified to ISO 2013 are approved for sale in US. None of the 4 replacements I have been offered is on the FDA approved list.
 
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@Oldvatr, what type of diabetes do you have and if relevant are you medicated?

Exactly how much of a cost differential is there between the strips that are being forced upon you and the typical ones listed in the .pdf?
 
GrantGam1337 said:
@Oldvatr, what type of diabetes do you have and if relevant are you medicated?

Exactly how much of a cost differential is there between the strips that are being forced upon you and the typical ones listed in the .pdf?
Click to expand...
T2D on orals. The saving to NHS would be around £15 pcm. So provided the replacement device is of similar capability to the Freestyle one I use, then I have no objection to changing, My experience with the Codefree has been poor, and I find it much less reliable in terms of repeatability, accuracy and misreads. So I want to see if anyone here has used any of the listed alternatives, rather than get bogged down in the funding issues.
 
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