Has anyone used one of these meters?

My Care Commissioning Group (CCG) has done a study into cost of ownership of bgl meters they support, and they are withdrawing support for most. I have been offered one of the following replacement meters

Glucozen Auto
Spirit TEE 2
NEON Finetest 2
Apollo Supercheck 2

I know sweet FA about these, and none are showing on my radar.

So my question is, has anyone out there in the forum had any experiece with any of these meters or the support network behind them?

I need to select and accept the CCG conditions within the next few weeks, so I do not have time to get sampler meters to test out myself.

There is another thread I started that disappeared down the rabbit hole of Is The CCG doing the right thing by this, but I am not asking that question here, so please find the other thread if you want to comment on the other topic.

OK @Administrator , what is the tie up between Glucozen and DCUK?. Their Glucozen FB page seems to be hosted by this site, and their hyperlinks go to t,co, amd always takes me to DCUK main site. Is there any reason why I should worry about the DCUK review on the product data being independant?

slip said:

Presume you've had a google at them?

They all look pretty much the same - code free strips, .5u blood drop, 5 sec result, large display 500 test memory, and various time period averages, the last one on your list can speak the result for the visually impaired.

Apart from that I've never seen or heard of these. Most probably have more use in the States or in mainland Europe ?

Click to expand...

Thank you @slip , Your reply is actually more informative than one may think. It is the absence of knowledge here on this forum and the other forum I attend that worries me. As you say they all have similar basic specs, but it is also worrying that Amazon has dealt with all 4 meters and consumables, but two of them seem to be dropped, and are marked o/s unavailable, There are also no purchaser reviews for any of them either.

One of the CCG selection criteria is that they offer a 24.7 helpline. I tried on Sat night around midnight, and only one had a human available. They were not able to answer my nerdy questions, but, this morning I had a call from their cutomer care person following up, so it did work. But only 1 (Spirit)

The Glucozen website was last updated Mar 2015. And the tech data is just bullet list. and seems to be more of a wish list. Their FB page has very few user comments, and is mainly advertising the DCUK website and Forum. Again, the lack of feedback is worrying.
The Spirit website is good, Unfortunately it appears that their meter is about to be replaced by a new one launching next month, so my CCG will no longer be able to support it.

Of the other two websites, they appear quite basic but these two are the ones no longer being sold by Amazon, and no user reviews.
Now to the meters themselves
All appear to be Plasma Equivalent calibrated.
None supports ketone test capability. The new Spirit Duo will, but is not on my list.
None appears to have backlight.
Most seem to support Alternative sites, but this is not important for me, so I have not confirmed that.

There are reports of EMI problems with the Neon Finetest2, and interference with mobile phones or cordless phones. The meter has temp range 10C to 40C, but the strips can be damaged by temp below 2C or above 30C, so not very robust in UK,

There is a report of difficulties stopping the Apollo Supercheck2 talking / nagging like a self serve checkout at Supermart,
The user manual suggests this is possible so not sure why a forum member was reporting difficulty
This meter boasts not storing any HI / LO results in memory (***???)

I have not made up my mind yet, Sad that none of the meters appears to have a popular user base

All are certified to the ISO at 2013 issue, but as far as I can tell none are FDA 2015 approved yet, so not on sale in USA.

slip said:

Sadly you now probably know more about those meters than the people holding the purse strings and making the decision.

Click to expand...

Just had reply from Spirit on their new meter due next month. It is an improvement on the TEE2, and has double the results memory, a backlit screen, and ketone capability. It has Bluetooth interface not USB. No hypo warning listed though. Test strips appear to meet the new CCG criterion on price.

Update: I have now talked to the nice lady at the CCG that is causing me to dump my trusty NEO meter, and she accepts the new Spirit Dual meter as being a suitable cheaper alternative.

I have now ordered one from Spirit Healthcare, and they are also sending me the ordering details that the GP has to put on my scrip, since they have not dealt with this company before, and it now has to go through the purchasing dept AND CCG for formal approval before they can order any strips for me.

I am due my final batch of strips for the NEO tomorrow, before Cinderella's bgl meter turns into a persona non-grata. So I have one month to get the GP surgery and chemist organised on the new meter.

GrantGam1337 said:

Does this mean that you know more than everyone on here and that we're all dumb @Oldvatr?

Click to expand...

I am worried that at least 2 CCGs are pushing meters that do not seem to be in common currency and have seemingly no previous track record or user base. The criteria is purely on cost of ownership, None of the recognised or established manufacturers is on the goto list. So we are being forced to select an unknown reliability device. Even the SD Codefree is a no-no, despite having the cheapest cost of ownership.

None of the approved meters can measure ketones. None of the approved meters has FDA approval so cannot be sold in USA. The only thing these meters have in common is in having to meet the ISO 2013 tests. This is a one-off type approval test, done before release date, and ability to maintain this standard is at present unknown. Ar least one of the 4 above seems to have EMI problems, and may be affected by phone signals interfering. The user manual tells the owner that the meter should not be used near a mobile or cord free phone. One other of the meters seems to have a non standard data port, and is not USB as claimed in their blurb (to be fair the blurb was a pre-launch publication, so may be updated now, But their website was last updated 2015 so is not up to date either. I note that the person complaining about this data port has not received any reply to date.

bulkbiker said:

Be interesting to hear how/if the ketone strips are priced.. nothing on their website at the moment about replacing the TEE2.
My Glucomen LX plus is not very good when measuring ketones and I probably waste 10% of strips which at anything up to £2.50 each! is getting expensive. Do you happen to know what the new one will be called?
Thanks
Mark

Click to expand...

The quote I have from Spirit is that the price is the same for both types of strip. The info I have is advanced copy, so I am awaiting an approved data sheet that I can share here. The new meter is called the Dual

Dual test strips are called CareSens PRO and are available for £9.95 per pack of 50 VAT free (if required, ketone test strips are provided for £9.95 per pack of 10 VAT free)

Oldvatr said:

OK @Administrator , what is the tie up between Glucozen and DCUK?. Their Glucozen FB page seems to be hosted by this site, and their hyperlinks go to t,co, amd always takes me to DCUK main site. Is there any reason why I should worry about the DCUK review on the product data being independant?

Click to expand...

@Administrator Please reply to my question. This meter does not seem to be launched yet.

Edit to add: Company information is not good.
https://www.duedil.com/company/09081717/glucozen-limited.
Another company registration site gives details of current Director, and that too is not good news. Suggests that this operation is unlikely to provide the claimed goods. Of course, I may be looking at wrong company name. However, Amazon is showing the Starter Kit as being unavailable and indeterminate restock. I think my CCG needs to be made aware of this.

OK, the Supercheck 2 from Apollo Medical technologies is not looking good either. According to their ownwebsite their meter accuracy is +/- 20% on a test sample of 159 patients, so it does not meet the ISO requirements. so should have failed the CCG selection process.

The listing on Amazon is also showing indefinite unavailable, but drugs direct is offering the strips at £15.64 per 50 strips, so again fails the CCG process. which required the vat free price to be under £10. The Vat free price from Mistry.com is £ 9.35, but would you trust a strip source of this name?

This meter does not store results that register as HI or LO, so does not store hypo or hyper events in memory.

6 second result display delay makes it slower than the others.

It is Plasma calibrated.

One user found, who was unable to silence the voice announcements, which makes use in an open plan office indiscreet. It is possible according to the user manual, as is the toggle between English and Spanish so this problem is not real. However, user manual is not the simplest to follow in this area.
Another user reported that it needs noticeably bigger sample size than their old meter.

I suspect that many who read this thread have felt that since they have not yet had 'the letter' that it will not apply to them. Sadly I have to report that the two CCG's that have so far implemented this new policy are what are termed NHS Vanguards.

https://www.england.nhs.uk/2016/12/vanguard-funding/

This means that they are the pilot trailblazers that eventually all NHS services will be made to follow if the pilot shows auccess. This move by Bolton CCG and Somerset CCG that are currently implementing will save something like 4 million pounds a year off the NHS budget, so is significant. It is likely that the new policy will be rolled out to all UK NHS providers later this year.

So it is likely that ALL diabetics (i.e/ all T(?)D) that currently receive test consumbles on prescription will be forced to change their meter or go privately funded. This is the scary part. The study that was performed quite clearly did not investigate the companies involved in making or importing these devices. They did not take into account a proven track reccord, or consumer suppport. Just price of strips.

It is also worrying that of the 4 'recommended' selection winners, only one appears to be listed on Amazon, and 3 are clearly no longer showing as active on that site. If they are not selling well in the public arena, then how long will they survive even with NHS banking?

I have made my choice based on their customer care and a good report from Companies House, coupled with it being a meter that ticks my boxes technically. But even this meter is not on the NHS approved list I was given, and I have had to bend the rules to get one that supports ketone testing.

Time will tell if I have made the best choice. I am happy to support this initiative and I am not wedded to my current supplier, but I do need a meter I can rely on. I have thought for a long time that test strips were excessively priced bits of plastic, so this may shake up the market a bit and make the major players think again (?)

Edit to add: the following from the people that carried out the study may be of interest:
http://gmmmg.nhs.uk/docs/guidance/P...the-Self-monitoring-of-blood-glucose-SMBG.pdf

This google search string seems to bring up relevant information in SMBG measures being put in place by various CCG's around the uk:
nhs ccg diabetes self monitoring
Try it and see if your local CCG is implementing the new policy.

STOP PRESS! My CareSens Dual meter from Spirit Healthcare has just arrived, the day after I ordered it in the phone. Very impressed with their customer care response.
They have given me permission to include the data sheet for this meter since it is still pre-launch, but they are happy for me to share it here (of course they are!). Please tag a Mod if you think it breaks the house rules, but since this is now an "approved" NHS selected meter, I felt it justified in this discussion.