With the new funding strategy whereby doctors will be managing their own budgets with potential bonuses at stake I would suspect that SM5:
"Regular use of SMBG should not be considered part
of routine care where diabetes is well controlled by
nutrition therapy or oral medications alone."
Will be used to short circuit SM1:
"Self-monitoring of blood glucose (SMBG) should only
be made available to people with diabetes when they
have the knowledge, skills and willingness to use
the information obtained through testing to actively
adjust treatment, enhance understanding of diabetes
and assess the effectiveness of the management plan
on glycaemic control."
At least the report recognizes that someone who is properly educated in the use of BG measurements with respect to diet and lifestyle can make significant improvement in their HbA1c. Interestingly it said 'lowering' ones HbA1c with the ultimate aim of reducing complications of diabetes. This flies in the face of the recommendations that pushing levels lower than 7 are risky....
It is still very much on the fence about the worthiness of testing in diet only applications because it can't assess that people have a clue what to do with the information. This really erks me because it is readily apparent that with the dietary information and no instruction what so ever about the meter and how to use it how could they expect any other results than what they see. We see a lot of basic diet tracking questions here that should be answered in the doctors office.
Kenny :thumbup: