Blood Glucose Testing-Bad Advice

[Dr H]

:lol:

The benefit of actually working at a hospital is that you can either just take them (we have a cupboard full of them on the ward, along with artificial sweeteners and meters) OR you can just get somebody else to prescribe them for you.

 

[Graham1441]

My chemist told me if i wanted more strips he knows another local doctor that give out more.
Graham1441 :twisted: :twisted:

 

[Vikingepigen]

:lol:

The benefit of actually working at a hospital is that you can either just take them (we have a cupboard full of them on the ward, along with artificial sweeteners and meters) OR you can just get somebody else to prescribe them for you.

Well, thanks a lot!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! If that is not the most condecending note I have seen here for a long time I do not know what is!!

Just how do you think that makes people like me feel??? I cannot get strips/lancets for love or money and is sick with worry over my Bg levels to the point where it is affecting my mental health!

If this is what the forum is becoming, I am SO leaving!!

Good Grief!

 

[Dr H]

It's not really condescending. I'm sure you'll find a doctor who'll sympathize with you. Pre-doctoring, I had to jump through hoops to actually get test strips. And even then, they didn't prescribe me enough.

But if you keep fighting, then PCTs give in. That's what they hate, people power.

 

[bmtest]

This is one of the reasons I have followed my own regime over the years.

The NHS does a great job but the pressure to balance the books for breakeven can clearly be felt with test stips, at least they are not suggesting we splice test strips like the old days.


The patient is the testing expert not the diabetic nurse or SPR on duty in the clinic, I like to test 5 times a day which means I need a repeat prescription every.2 weeks or so as they limit my strips.

 

[Spiral]

:lol:

The benefit of actually working at a hospital is that you can either just take them (we have a cupboard full of them on the ward, along with artificial sweeteners and meters) OR you can just get somebody else to prescribe them for you.

Isn't the first thing stealing from the hard pressed NHS?

Isn't the second thing unethical?

 

[Dr H]

Not really, every year our PCT gives the ward I work on far too many test strips. After the year, they essentially become the ward's property instead of the NHS's. We donate these test strips to wards that need it i.e. elderly care or the endocrinology clinic.

However, we always have far more than we can give away, so we prescribe the surplus to people that are struggling to get test strips from the PCT. My friend also prescribes them to me as the PCT's attitude to my diabetes is (and I quote an e-mail I got):

Dear Mr XXXX,

Upon reviewing your request to be prescribed diabetes test strips, we have decided that it would not be a good use of resources. As we are already aware that you have a plentiful supply of them yourself. It would be unfair to prescribe them in your instance instead of prescribing them to the general public because as you made the case known when you e-mailed us previously, Wards 52 and 53 have a surplus of roughly 10 000 test strips. It has also been called to our attention that it's in the PCTs best interest to let your ward keep surplus testing kits and distribute as your ward clerk sees fit.

I would advise you however that these lax controls will not be tolerated on other forms of diabetes control. If in the event of your condition needing to be controlled via medication, you must follow the traditional route.

Yours sincerely,

Mr XXXX

 

[graham64]

:lol:

The benefit of actually working at a hospital is that you can either just take them (we have a cupboard full of them on the ward, along with artificial sweeteners and meters) OR you can just get somebody else to prescribe them for you.

Well, thanks a lot!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! If that is not the most condecending note I have seen here for a long time I do not know what is!!

Just how do you think that makes people like me feel??? I cannot get strips/lancets for love or money and is sick with worry over my Bg levels to the point where it is affecting my mental health!

If this is what the forum is becoming, I am SO leaving!!

Good Grief!

Hi Alice,
I know how you feel but I hope you will reconsider, you have become a valued member of this board, I'm sure many other members feel this way.

Best Wishes
Graham

 

[Spiral]

Not really, every year our PCT gives the ward I work on far too many test strips. After the year, they essentially become the ward's property instead of the NHS's. We donate these test strips to wards that need it i.e. elderly care or the endocrinology clinic.

However, we always have far more than we can give away, so we prescribe the surplus to people that are struggling to get test strips from the PCT. My friend also prescribes them to me as the PCT's attitude to my diabetes is (and I quote an e-mail I got):

Dear Mr XXXX,

Upon reviewing your request to be prescribed diabetes test strips, we have decided that it would not be a good use of resources. As we are already aware that you have a plentiful supply of them yourself. It would be unfair to prescribe them in your instance instead of prescribing them to the general public because as you made the case known when you e-mailed us previously, Wards 52 and 53 have a surplus of roughly 10 000 test strips. It has also been called to our attention that it's in the PCTs best interest to let your ward keep surplus testing kits and distribute as your ward clerk sees fit.

I would advise you however that these lax controls will not be tolerated on other forms of diabetes control. If in the event of your condition needing to be controlled via medication, you must follow the traditional route.

Yours sincerely,

Mr XXXX

I work in the public sector. Where I work, this would be considered to be a fairly serious breach of our code of conduct and a disciplinary offense.

Personally, I think this is disgraceful. You are getting more favorable treatment than an ordinary member of the public because of your position. And award clerk distributing the excess :shock: Please!

 

[Dr H]

Not really. If I didn't get them this way, I would just chase them up through my PCT. Hence why they let me take them. I don't go to the pharmacy and take them, I go to the pharmacist in the hospital who accepts that I need them to test and give them to me. I don't see that as a problem. I've stood back and let other doctors prescribe diabetics test strips when they've been refused them.

 

[Spiral]

Not really. If I didn't get them this way, I would just chase them up through my PCT. Hence why they let me take them. I don't go to the pharmacy and take them, I go to the pharmacist in the hospital who accepts that I need them to test and give them to me. I don't see that as a problem. I've stood back and let other doctors prescribe diabetics test strips when they've been refused them.

I wonder if your hospital's Board of Directors and the general public would take such a generous view. I wonder how this policy compares to the prescribing policy used by your local PCT.

The general public, and I'd guess the rest of this board's membership, simply does not have the ability or opportinuty to access the system you are using to get unlimited numbers of strips. Many of us have to argue a very compelling case for every strip we get on prescription, and then we may not get the number we actually use and supplement our supply by buying privately.

I bet you are not eligible for free prescriptions either, on a doctor's salary. No, don't tell me, let me guess, you have a pre-pay certificate. Another of our members who is a health professional buys the additional strips she needs privately, so this system does not even sound equitable for those who work within the health system, or perhaps it is a different hospital with a differnet policy.

Your attitude seems to me to be very similar to the MPs who said they hadn't broken the rules over their expenses.

 

[Dr H]

You don't think I had to argue for them? It took mr 6 MONTHS just for the PCT to give me the time of day. Also, it's not unlimited. I'm prescribed a months worth of test strips every month. Another point, no I do not get prescriptions free I have to pay.

And it's nothing like mps expenses. That was equivalent to fraud. What I am doing is finding a compliant doctor who believes diabetics should have access to testing kits. And I eventually wore down my hospital (and it did go to the directors) into letting me order them from the hospital pharmacy.

Why? Well if any of us suffered the possible complications it would be terrible, but if god-forbid I suffered from peripheral neuropathy or blindness, then I would be out of a job with no means to carry on working as a doctor. Also, unlike the media portrays, there is a shortage of doctors in the uk, and losing one to a disease which is manageable with correct monitoring was not very high on the PCT's agenda.

That was my compelling case.

 

[mullaneder]

i think its a bit unfair to compare it to mps expenses.it isnt the same at all.i hoped that this forum would stop the personal attacks.calling dr h condacending and comparing him to an mp i thought wasn`t very nice at all :roll:

 

[cugila]

Well I've had another look and can't find any Hba1C test kits available in the UK that give you a result at home, you have to take the blood and send it off to a lab. The US kits are complete self test kits.

Thanks for the link, Ken, but it seems to lead to a cholesterol kit, which wasn't what I was after.

Hi Parselmouth.

Sorry about the little hiccup the other day. I found that there are no HbA1c home testing kits/meters available in the UK other than some kit which is made by Bayer. This is Lab standard equipment and from talking to the Rep here, it is several thousands of pounds. Then the cost of running it runs again into thousands of pounds a year, depending on how often it is used. She wouldn't quote a definite figure for Commercial reasons.

So I think it's the ones you send away unless as I said you have VERY deep pockets. ?

Ken.

 

[jenrose]

'Not really. If I didn't get them this way, I would just chase them up through my PCT. Hence why they let me take them. I don't go to the pharmacy and take them, I go to the pharmacist in the hospital who accepts that I need them to test and give them to me. I don't see that as a problem. I've stood back and let other doctors prescribe diabetics test strips when they've been refused them.
Dr H '

Oh how big of you Dr H

 

[janabelle]

Hi all,
Must say I'm surprised at the interest in home HBA1c testing-it is free on the NHS. The prob my relative had as a type-2 was having a 10.2 (obvously high) result ignored by a doctor! Would it be any different if he went armed with his own results, I doubt it-docs rarely like to be told how to do their job, even when they clearly need it. :evil:
Type-1s should not be forking out for testing strips because bad advice is dictating PCT decision making. Likewise type-2s should not be paying for their HBA1c tests- medics and experts know the risks of not self-monitoring and it will only cost the NHS in the long-term, when people display the inevitable complications. Glucose testing strip restrictions make know sense whatever way you look at it, it's a backward step in diabetes care and management.
Jus

 

[Handyníall]

I know that the hospital the RCSI is adjoined to has a massive surplus of various things as well. They're happy to prescribe test strips. I'd say that half the diabetics in Dublin get their supplies from the hospital.

Also, I don't think Dr H is doing anything to bad. We work at a bar and regularly have a free drink. Now, if he was taking drugs from the pharmacy then yeah we should berate him. But honestly, I don't think it's all that big a deal. Then again, neither of us typing are familiar with the NHS and the way it operates, so you should just ignore us... And we're a teeny bit drunk...

 

[cugila]

mmmmh...... :?

The problem with Dr H's comments about the strips he gets are this.

That equipment is paid for by us the taxpayer's who are funding the NHS. So it is we the taxpayer's who are paying. I don't see how it can be justified just because there is a surplus and I don't see that the authorities where he works have any right to give these items away to staff either.

The mercyships organisation were asking for strips to be donated recently, perhaps the good Dr H should suggest the hospital donates the surplus to them instead. A far better use of them ?

If I knew where it was I would certainly complain about this. Dr H seems to have the same attitude as you, but his 'perk' is publicly funded by us.
Your 'perk' of free drinks is payed for by the boss of wherever you work. Not the same thing.

I can understand people here getting irate about this. This is nothing more than a misuse of public funds perpetuated by the hospital authorities. Nothing can justify this.

By the way lads, hope you don't have a hangover this morning ?

Ken.

 

[phoenix]

That equipment is paid for by us the taxpayer's who are funding the NHS. So it is we the taxpayer's who are paying. I don't see how it can be justified just because there is a surplus and I don't see that the authorities where he works have any right to give these items away to staff either.

I would agree but

Also, it's not unlimited. I'm prescribed a months worth of test strips every month. Another point, no I do not get prescriptions free I have to pay

If Dr H had he simply taken them from the ward cupboard (option 1 in the original post) that would have been wrong, but unsurprising, I'm positive things like that go on everyday. What is wrong is the over ordering that results in so many strips not being used at all. Dr H seems to have flagged this up to the authorities.
The fact that he knows doctors who will prescribe these strips is fortuitous but not also not surprising, we have all heard that some doctors in the UK will prescribe them, others not.

 

[mullaneder]

after all dr h is a diabetic like the rest of us.should we have a problem with every person who has no problem getting strips.i dont think so.the real problem is that not everyone can get them so easily.dr h doesnt decide policy.he is just fortunate that he can get them so easily.as are other members that also have good gps that will prescribe them whenever they need them.i might be wrong and i hope i am but it sounds a bit like sour grapes to me. :?