Prescription Glucose Test Kit

[pneumatician]

Being a type 2 Diabetic our medical practice have stopped prescribing glucose test kit.

I have had the condition for about 4 years and from the beginning have taken my own readings untill this new reguime came in about 18 months ago.
I am now encountering problems keeping the condition under control because other than symptoms I have no idea what my BS is.
Are the Strips and Lancets expensive? Should I buy my own?
I have asked the practice at my last review and they refused to re-supply.

Suggestions appreciated.
Steve

 

[caitycakes]

It makes my blood boil when I hear of type 2 diabetics not getting testing strips. I wonder how many doctors who have type 2 are being denied testing? Do you think they take their own advice? Do you think they tell themselves "you don't need to test, it will only worry you"? Who the hell do they think they are. They tell you that you have a chronic illness and then deny you the means to monitor it. The hypocratic oath states "first do no harm", well I think they are doing untold harm by denying type 2 diabetics test strips on prescription.

Caitycakes x

 

[totsy]

my next door neighbour has type 2 and is only given urine testing strips,its disgusting :evil:

 

[colrow]

Hi, I live in Ireland and get as many test strips as I need, but I have been working in Scotland for 4 months so registered witha gp here, and assigned to the practise nurse, she refused to give me test strips, because I am a type 2, and don't need them, and I should only need to test once a week anyway. I had a blood test and my Hba1c came back as 5,7 which I thought was very good, she said it was too low and she wanted to see it up to 7 !!!!! She told me to stop taking my diamicron, and this made my bg's much higher, 2 hours after a meal it was still up in the 9's and 10's, so on a trip home to Kerry, I saw my gp there and he put me back on the diamicron, and said that the 5.7 was probably a duff result, and before making any changes the nurse should have looked at 2 results indicating a lower reading.

What confuses me is that I have never heard of raising the Hba1c only of trying to get it as low as possible, so I've got no faith at all in the practice nurse here.

I used to go on a diabetes newsgroup but my Irish internet newsserver didn't carry it, and the free newserver I had wanted paying ;-( So hello to Nicky and umm was it haqmster boy or rat boyI can't remember anyone elses name, rampant old age catching up with me, anyway I hope you are all keeping well

 

[hanadr]

This restriction of strips is now pretty much universal. they cost too much and they truly believe that twice weekly testing is enough. I am hearing more and more people saying that there low readings are being criticised as too low. I've had it myself.
My answer to that is, "What is your HbA1c?, shouldn't mine be the same as yours?"

 

[tubolard]

As I understand it the NHS target is to be between 6.5 and 7.5%, not to be at a specific HbA1c. Also, as I understand it, they don't actively promote going lower than 6.5%, only because they consider it difficult to achieve.

Regards, Tubs.

 

[VBee]

Sounds like the medical profession needs to get their finger out and educate themselves. :roll: They should visit this forum! :shock: So much information here it's excellent.

 

[tubolard]

More importantly, they shouldn't be discouraging an HbA1c < 6.5%.

Regards, Tubs.

 

[Trinkwasser]

Hi, I live in Ireland and get as many test strips as I need, but I have been working in Scotland for 4 months so registered witha gp here, and assigned to the practise nurse, she refused to give me test strips, because I am a type 2, and don't need them, and I should only need to test once a week anyway. I had a blood test and my Hba1c came back as 5,7 which I thought was very good, she said it was too low and she wanted to see it up to 7 !!!!! She told me to stop taking my diamicron, and this made my bg's much higher, 2 hours after a meal it was still up in the 9's and 10's, so on a trip home to Kerry, I saw my gp there and he put me back on the diamicron, and said that the 5.7 was probably a duff result, and before making any changes the nurse should have looked at 2 results indicating a lower reading.

What confuses me is that I have never heard of raising the Hba1c only of trying to get it as low as possible, so I've got no faith at all in the practice nurse here.

Obviously time she stopped practicing. Can you continue to get your prescriptions from your former doctor posted to you?

I used to go on a diabetes newsgroup but my Irish internet newsserver didn't carry it, and the free newserver I had wanted paying ;-( So hello to Nicky and umm was it haqmster boy or rat boyI can't remember anyone elses name, rampant old age catching up with me, anyway I hope you are all keeping well

Nicky and Flying Rat, I'll pass on your regards

 

[Trinkwasser]

I do not know what the NHS target is but if it is between 6.5 and 7.5%, it is very easy to see why so many diabetics suffer complications. If they believe a figure below 6.5 is difficult to achieve they should ask themselves why ? Could it be that the information given to diabetics on diet. is the cause of so many finding 6.5 hard to better. Many on here have achieved far better than 6.5 in a matter of months, usually by ignoring the usual dietary information trotted out.

Rob

Exactly, on the ADA Forum we just had someone come back with an A1c dropped from 15.9 to 5.9

The ADA's own recommendation is that medical Nutrition Therapy will achieve a maximum of 1 - 2% reduction. And that's considerably lower in carb nowadays than the DUK recommendation.

If you were cynical you might believe these people were trying to kill us off . . .

 

[colrow]

I used to go on a diabetes newsgroup but my Irish internet newsserver didn't carry it, and the free newserver I had wanted paying ;-( So hello to Nicky and umm was it haqmster boy or rat boyI can't remember anyone elses name, rampant old age catching up with me, anyway I hope you are all keeping well

Nicky and Flying Rat, I'll pass on your regards[/quote]


Hi Trinky, its all coming back to me, I remember you as well, I'm getting my strips when I go back to ireland, so thats good. This forum is good, none of that utter **** thats on the ng's thank god.

I was really scared when the nurse said she wanted to get my a1c up to 7, plus she told me that measuring 2 hours after a meal is when the reading is the highest, I was armed with info from here and she backed down when she saw the recomendations in black & white, so she's obviously well uninformed

 

[countessbump]

OP, if you'd like some lancets, I have an extra box, I got them prescribed but I won't be needing the second box as I have gestational diabetes and will not even need all of the 1st box..... the prescription was for 200 lancets and 50 strips. Why? I have no clue - I'm supposed to use 4 strips a day and 1 lancet!

PM me if you'd like them - I can give you the brand then.

 

[Trinkwasser]

[
I was really scared when the nurse said she wanted to get my a1c up to 7, plus she told me that measuring 2 hours after a meal is when the reading is the highest, I was armed with info from here and she backed down when she saw the recomendations in black & white, so she's obviously well uninformed

Print some of these off and leave them lying around

http://diabetesupdate.blogspot.com/2008 ... blood.html

<evil grin>

I suspect we are going to see far more cluelessness since ACCORD, there's a world of difference between feeding diabetics a metric shedload of carbs followed by a metric shedload of medication and getting their BG down with a sensible diet. The latter approach is sorely lacking within official channels in the UK but a few individuals here and there are doing it and a small but increasing number of medics are teaching it.