I agree to a degree.
If the doctor looks at the results of prescribing the strips and sees good results then keep the script going but if not what's the point?
.....so if I was part of this study and my strips were stopped. I pay £8 of the £10 prescription cost. So that's a £2 saving rather than a tenner.
Does the nhs therefore save the amount alleged?
Cheers.
Sorry but I don't agree and support MikeJ1973's view. To keep testing both before and after a meal seems pointless if you already know about that food or meal type. Do occasional sample testing but to do it regularly seems pointless. What is more important to avoid long-term damage is surely to test 2 hours after a meal fairly often to determine whether your medication, overall diet etc is affecting your blood sugar. It's important to know what the objective of any testing is bearing in mind cost to the NHS and the number of holes you want to make in your fingers!
I am only on metformin and get strips prescribed. I only use about 3 pots per year if that. As a type 2 of 17 years standing, my GP has agreed to prescribe so that on occasions when I am unwell or feel strange, I can see what my bloods are doing. I know by now what effect foods have on me so do not test regularly. My HbA1c results are in the normal range. It was interesting to see someone who did well when using strips but not when strips were stopped. This appears to be a case of not using the meter to learn and remember - I can no longer test so I am going to forget what effects foods have on me! Our goal is self management and that, I am afraid, includes responsibility and restraint.Perhaps- but that isn't what we're talking about here. The blanket refusal of some practices to prescribe test strips is, simply, idiocy- and I'd add that the simplest way of sorting your objection would be to decide on "reasonable" levels of testing, preferably including a few extra strips for errors/ worries etc.
The issue that struck me in reading that was that test strips should not be issued to Type 2's " who are not at risk of hypoglycaemia "
That completely misses the point. From what I have read on here, hypoglycaemia is not what the majority are testing for anyway, it's the achievement of good BG figures . You simply can't tell what a person's overall control is like by an annual or biannual Hba1c . I also seems from that study that when meters and strips were prescribed, very little education was given in their use, so that was self defeating
Cynical me also thinks their choice of location for the study would skew he projected savings for the NHS, given that these areas have the highest numbers of Type 2's in the country.
Signy
Agreed.I am only on metformin and get strips prescribed. I only use about 3 pots per year if that. As a type 2 of 17 years standing, my GP has agreed to prescribe so that on occasions when I am unwell or feel strange, I can see what my bloods are doing. I know by now what effect foods have on me so do not test regularly. My HbA1c results are in the normal range. It was interesting to see someone who did well when using strips but not when strips were stopped. This appears to be a case of not using the meter to learn and remember - I can no longer test so I am going to forget what effects foods have on me! Our goal is self management and that, I am afraid, includes responsibility and restraint.
Just a few thoughts.
Regards
Doug
True DougI am only on metformin and get strips prescribed. I only use about 3 pots per year if that. As a type 2 of 17 years standing, my GP has agreed to prescribe so that on occasions when I am unwell or feel strange, I can see what my bloods are doing. I know by now what effect foods have on me so do not test regularly. My HbA1c results are in the normal range. It was interesting to see someone who did well when using strips but not when strips were stopped. This appears to be a case of not using the meter to learn and remember - I can no longer test so I am going to forget what effects foods have on me! Our goal is self management and that, I am afraid, includes responsibility and restraint.
Just a few thoughts.
Regards
Doug
On one hand isn't it great that you have someone willing to fight your cause.Here's the reply from Mp.
Dear Paul,
Thank you for your further email.
If re-elected I will of course be happy to look in to the issues you raise about glucose metres and would just ask that you drop me a line and perhaps we could meet in a surgery if I am the MP.
Thank you for getting in touch.
Best wishes,
This could be interesting.
Are you on diabetic medication but still paying for your prescriptions?True Doug
However.
I am t2 on diet and medicine alone. I will be coming up to my 1st anniversary this August. I would gladly not test if I didn't feel it was appropriate in my personal situation. I already self fund the vast majority of test strips and believe that the £12 cost incurred to the nhs per year (1 box per 2 months at a tenner minus my prescription payment - £8) is a good investment on controlling my diabetes and avoiding complications down the line.
We are all different and I think that the concern is over a blanket ban on t2 self testing based on poor research and not on an individual assessment.
Cheers
Hi BaruneyTrue Doug
However.
I am t2 on diet and medicine alone. I will be coming up to my 1st anniversary this August. I would gladly not test if I didn't feel it was appropriate in my personal situation. I already self fund the vast majority of test strips and believe that the £12 cost incurred to the nhs per year (1 box per 2 months at a tenner minus my prescription payment - £8) is a good investment on controlling my diabetes and avoiding complications down the line.
We are all different and I think that the concern is over a blanket ban on t2 self testing based on poor research and not on an individual assessment.
Cheers
Hi @Daphne917Are you on diabetic medication but still paying for your prescriptions?
Agreed Doug, as previously stated.Hi Baruney
Indeed, the imposition of a blanket ban would not be appropriate. But for type 2s at no risk of hypo who have been diagnosed for some time, what are the tests being used for? If I know the effect on my body of eating a particular food, then what is the purpose of testing having eaten it?
Regards
Doug
Exactly they keep moaning about how much diabetic complications are costing and how this is set to rise and yet when people want to help themselves by testing its actively discouraged ( re costs of strips ) yet meds are handed out no probssave 20mil now and spend 100mil late on complications
And yet you can get nicotine patches etc to help quit smoking ( and no I'm not having a go at smokers)
They only hand out patches for two weeks supply is what I have been told, my mum is 89 years young tomorrow she went into hospital two years ago to have a third of ehr lung removed due to cancer, yes she has smoked all her life she stopped for the operation but is back on the fags again I took her to her Doctors surgery to see if she could get help with stopping again and they said she could have two lots free the rest she would havee to pay for..her being the age she is I don't think she wants to stop ......as many others would like to but can notExactly they keep moaning about how much diabetic complications are costing and how this is set to rise and yet when people want to help themselves by testing its actively discouraged ( re costs of strips ) yet meds are handed out no probs
Perhaps someone with a bit of diabetes street cred could petition the parmos to cut the cost of the test strips i know i'd sign it. I foresee a huge problem that the pharmos are exploiting by milking the nhs for all its cash via the back door of the current diabetes epidemic, most medicines we take for granted as diabetics are largely quite expensive and if the nhs was to crumble and the support was gone what would we do? The NHS has only been about since 1948, Cameron could have it blown out of the water by this next election.
"We rely on the NHS at the best and worst moments of our life" I signed this petition today its just the start of the specter of privatisation,
https://secure.38degrees.org.uk/page/s/party-leaders-keep-the-nhs-free#petition If you haven't already signed it you may need too consider it before the next election.
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