Pen Needle Recommendations

[genix]

I agree with @Zinadane it's an insult offering cheap rubbish to inject with for free. If your going to do this for life then get quality tools for the job.

 

[Zinadane]

So which are the best?
ie.

• With a cap (imperative for me!)
• Cap is not too long, so will fit inside the novopen 5 cover.
• Needle with good injection performance.

Anyone?

 

[Dodo]

So where do you get these Swiss tips???
I have dime comfort point, the plastic cap is fractionally too long for the novopen 5 cover to fit correctly, so sometimes the pen will lose its cover, great!
The last decent tips I had were exel comfort point 4mm, which are now no longer available. Cost about another £5 over a year I guess, calculated by some non-diabetic retard at the NHS savings department.
Now the GP will only issue capless cheap rubbish, complete PITA! Absolute non-starter for me!
I'm happy to buy something that is fit for purpose, rather than be given free stuff that just makes things even more difficult. Bleeding NHS, drive me mad!

NHS - Works for me.

 

[TheBigNewt]

I use Novofine needles. 30G 1/3 inch. I put one on a new pen and almost never change it.

 

[Zinadane]

I actually use 4mm and this is good with me.
It seems in the UK that different regions of NHS are offering different tips is this right?
It looks like I can buy unifine 4mm from ebay, Not actually sure though if the latest ones have inner cap or not though?
Is the no-cap style a cost saving or is it a health recommendation anyone know.
I found this on the Herefordshire NHS site, so they've obviously looked into the potential miniscual savings they can make!

re if the latest unifines are now also missing the cap though. Is it a cost thing or more a health care recommendation?

 

[TheBigNewt]

I would think one would want the little white cap right? I know people throw them away with every use, but I'll say it again a box of 100 pen needles lasts me about 4 years!

 

[Zinadane]

Correct.
The no-cap style and you need to carry sufficient tips wherever you go. Change each time and dispose of old. Say 8 injections per day, What a lot of extra hassle! You can now no longer put you pen and test kit in your pocket and off you go, You’ve got to start wheying up how many tips to take and find somewhere to store new ones & old ones. Really on top of everything else!

Their argument – under microscope the tip is contaminated after single use. Reality is they save a couple of pence per tip I reckon.

Well I’ve used a tip for a week with no problem. Anybody contrary to this?

Anyway, it won't be cost saving as people are now using tens of times more tips! Unless they didn’t factor this in. God knows!

 

[Jordi77]

I use novotwist 5mm as they are a quick twist on to novorapid and levemir cartridges and they have a inside cover and I get them by the 100 as it's easier for the chemist and the doctor to do it by that way and I was told that when I was first diagnosed in the 90s that you could use a needle twice a day and then when you got them on prescription you had to use them once and put them in a sharps bin and that you could use it only once and no more but now with the nhs being skint I don't have a clue where it's going to end up at

 

[TheBigNewt]

Again, I've been using Novorapid or Humulog insulin pens since they came out. I put a new pen needle on the 300U pen which lasts me about 3 weeks. Then I throw it out, put a new needle on the new pen, expel about 3U of "air", and use it. In rare cases I'll bend the needle putting the little white cap back on but usually I just use the same needle until the pen is empty. Our insurance doesn't pay for needles or syringes or test strips, that stuff is cheap.

 

[Zinadane]

Bought 300 BD microfine ultra 4mm. Should be good I think. OK £20, but they'll last me an age!

I suppose I'll then go and sell the NHS supplied ones on ebay to cover the cost of my new purchase, bleeding stupid TBF!

 

[Zinadane]

My bd microfine turned up. Just thought I'd report that they are absolutely brilliant. Completely painless and with cap so you can reuse. So much better than any of the NHS cost saving ****!

 

[JacquiMorrison]

I wrote a complaint to the UK NHS and they advised me to contact my GP saying I wanted the old ones and they kept the old ones with the inner protection cap on my prescription worth asking.

 

[JacquiMorrison]

My bd microfine turned up. Just thought I'd report that they are absolutely brilliant. Completely painless and with cap so you can reuse. So much better than any of the NHS cost saving ****!

Do you reuse your needles?!

 

[JacquiMorrison]

Bought 300 BD microfine ultra 4mm. Should be good I think. OK £20, but they'll last me an age!

I suppose I'll then go and sell the NHS supplied ones on ebay to cover the cost of my new purchase, bleeding stupid TBF!

NHS supply the BD microfine 4mm I get these on prescription?

 

[Zinadane]

Do you reuse your needles?!

I change every 2-3 days. Less hassle and can say I've had any problems

 

[JacquiMorrison]

I change every 2-3 days. Less hassle and can say I've had any problems

Wow, I didn't know that was possible. I thought they went blunt after using them? I use a new one every single injection, use about 6-7 a day!

 

[sonar46]

Like I said I put a needle on the new pen and use it until the pen runs out of insulin, about 20 days. I just carefully replace the little white needle cover each time I use it. I'm guessing you use a new needle every injection. I've done it this way since they started making the pens. So I use each needle about 50-60 times and they don't ever "bounce off" either! No problems.

Me too - one needle per pen since diagnosis 4 years ago. Never had any problems. The needle does become noticeably blunt to be fair but the level of pain increase for me is next to nothing so I am pretty committed to this practice since I like to reduce waste wherever I can. I appreciate not everyone will have this experience but for me its been fine. Those are BD microfine ultra 0.23*4mm needles btw. I'm on this thread because I've just had letter from my GP informing they are changing me to TriCare needles of the same length. Doubtful about their quality, and given I use around 80 needles a year, feel like I'm worth the extra pennies lol. Will probably try them and get back on whether they are good for 50+ injections like the BD....

 

[Cap'n M]

Me too - one needle per pen since diagnosis 4 years ago. Never had any problems. The needle does become noticeably blunt to be fair but the level of pain increase for me is next to nothing so I am pretty committed to this practice since I like to reduce waste wherever I can. I appreciate not everyone will have this experience but for me its been fine. Those are BD microfine ultra 0.23*4mm needles btw. I'm on this thread because I've just had letter from my GP informing they are changing me to TriCare needles of the same length. Doubtful about their quality, and given I use around 80 needles a year, feel like I'm worth the extra pennies lol. Will probably try them and get back on whether they are good for 50+ injections like the BD....

This week my London GP has switched me from NovoFine 31G x 6mm [£13.02 per box] to TriCare equivalent [£5.95 per box].
I reuse my needle [x3 injections] but only over 1 day. The TriCare needles are manufactured in S.Korea. They are close copies of the NovoFine needles but with different coloured plastics. The manufacturing tolerances are not identical and so they are not as smoothly fitting to the cartridge as the NovoFine needles. However, the stainless needle seems perfectly ok but I don't know whether they could survive 50 reuses!