Hi,
@Sweetbinty , like the others say, Superdrug seems to be ahead of the others at the moment pricewise, so maybe worthwhile making a few enquiries at any near you.
It's a postcode lottery at the moment on the prescription front. Many ccgs are citing lack of clinical data and seem to be playing a waiting game until formal data turns up.
I'm pretty sure one of the things they'll be watching is how it's playing out in other areas which have taken a more liberal approach.
Wales and Northern Ireland have been fine with it, and, like
@Alison54321 , I'm fortunate enough to live in Edinburgh, where NHS Lothian decided to basically give it to any T1 who wanted it.
One of the interesting things which the consultant who led the short induction session I went to said was that they weren't that bothered about lack of clinical data, they just knew how hard T1 is to manage, if they were T1, they'd want it, so they couldn't in good faith deny it to us.
I suspect that he took that view because, despite lack of formal peer reviewed clinical data, the consultants were seeing so many libre self-funders on the ground at reviews saying, look, I'm paying for this myself, I'm more motivated, see how my a1c is down, with fewer hypos, see how the AGP graph I get from it tells me way more about what's going on than your basic a1c number does etc. etc...
I don't know how the NHS works (some parts of the NHS doesn't seem to know how it works either!) but I think self-funders can play a part in this by printing out their AGP graph and the various reports that libre can produce, taking them along to consultations, so that when the doc says, ok, your a1c is x, you can then say, ok, here's why, here's some graphs.
Docs like this stuff, they like seeing more information and seeing that patients are becoming more actively involved in management, so I think it does no harm at all for self-funders to do this.
It's bound to eventually filter down from the docs seeing us to the bean counters that it does make a difference, which will likely make a longer term saving in the costs of treating complications.
In Scotland, the Scottish Health Technologies Group is doing a report on it in June and some areas are hanging fire till that's out. I imagine there's similar things going on in England.
I think it's only a matter of time before ccg executives all over the country do a face-palm and say, duh, this is obvious, why didn't we fund this sooner.
