Its ppossible that you may have been a victim , not so much of the budgetary constraints but of ignorance! In so many practices now it is all left to the nurse . The doctors know nothing and dont want to know anything about diabetes.
In my practice we have one nurse who is occupied full time with diabetes patients and she has another sister assisting her when necessary. The doctors thus feel justified in referring you to the "Diabetes Specialist ",
Unfortunately she doesn't know much abour T2 medicaion. She has given me advice in the past which could have been catasrophic for me. She has made no attempt to learn anything about the new T2 drugs as she feels all T2s ashould also be on insulin. The last time I saw her we were talking about this and I said that Januvia had been a great successs for me. This was prescribed by the hospital when my opthalmologist had referrred me to the diabeteds dept.. I had believed that practices were not allowed to prescribe it. She said that she could , but never considered it. She also said that there was a "new" injectable drug but she did not even know its name and never prescribed that either!
So you would have had no chance of getting it from her either, Ladybird! Since you mentioned it to them yourself they may have done some research and will know more about it when you go back. If they don't raise the matter with you I should ask them for more details of why they think it is unsuitable for you. If you remain unsatisfied ask for a referral to the hospital .I
Also ask for a printout of your results.
So