Hi bauline,
NICE Guidelines are in favour of type 1s testing because they need to take their medicine based on their current sugar readings. They need to test to find that out. Type 2's that make their insulin can be tested every 3 months to get the average of blood sugar levels based on Red blood cells. Its a cost cutting exercise that type 2's do not need to know how their blood sugars are. The type 2s on this forum find it is vital to measure your bg to bring them into the "normal" range. If you are measuring your bloods and see that they are high you can do something about it before waiting for the sugar to damage your body. We use the tests to cut back on the number of carbohydrates in our diets to bring the sugar down to an acceptable level. This is not recommended by the NICE people who recommend everyone eats 1/4 of their eat well plate as carbohydrates. If I did this Id be in the 15+ range for Blood glucose dangerously high and damaging to my body. By measuring my blood sugars, I can tell when Im high and cut back on my carbohydrates. Because NICE guidelines do not support what I do I pay for my own. Its my body and I will not let others tell me what is good for me and potentially put myself in a bad situation while I wait for a 3 month test.