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Private Care

B

benc92

Newbie
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1
Hi, I'm wondering if any type 1's have explored the route of private care, due to covid the NHS care has been non existent, I havent seen a consultant or received any care for over 2 years and would like to start using a pump due to scar tissue (BS is all over the place)

Any feedback on previous experience of private health care would be great.
 
I had a private specialist while refusing insulin after my diagnosis with type 1 for two years and met every 3 months. He monitored my c-peptide, helped me understand my condition, and supported me when I eventually deteriorated onto insulin. He's also now my consultant on the NHS as he is one of the lead consultants on the hospital team.

I'm sorry you're having a tough time getting help. You need to be pushy. You could write down your waking, nighttime, and before meal blood sugars, insulin doses, CHO's for a week and email it through to your DN or diabetes team and ask for help. You can also ask for a DAFNE course which you need to do before you get a pump.
 
Alexandra100 said:
How did you go about finding a good one (ie one who would support Dr B's approach, which I too follow)?
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I chose one who consulted on my NHS local hospital diabetes team and saw private patients.
 
Alexandra100 said:
Thanks.
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Re: Dr. Bernstein's approach. The consultant understood how the approach worked. Once starting insulin we discussed hypos and ketones and he was happy I understood the science and pleased with my Libre results. They believe some people can't manage blood sugars between 4 and 5 on insulin without hypoing all the time, but the thing about Bernstein's approach is you don't have the massive highs or lows. Also, we discussed running into nutritional ketosis, but with normal blood sugars (I know my blood sugars have to be over 13mmol/l for an extended period of time and be ill for there to be an issue with ketones.)
 
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Just to say that if you've got a lot of scar tissue, with a pump you need to avoid putting a cannula on, or very near, to scar tissue, as it won't absorb the insulin properly, so you may want to check this out further first.
 
@benc92 sorry to read that your diabetes care has been missing over the last couple of years.
Some times we have to be proactive to remind our healthcare providers that we need help- have you contacted your diabetes clinic and/or GP?

I do not know if you can get an insulin pump privately but, if you can you need to be aware of the ongoing cost of the pump consumables as well as the cost of the pump. This can become very high over he life of a pump and I would be surprised if the NHS would be wiling to take on this expense for "someone else's" patient.
 

Hi there, do you mean they have just ignored you completely or are you just unhappy at not seeing anyone face to face or with blood tests being abandoned, etc? If it's the former, it might be worth a try contacting them first off and complaining about their lack of care. I'm not sure if you have private health insurance as I do but mine doesn't cover anything diabetes related anyway. I imagine it's a lot of money to pay straight out of your pocket, I think I would rather rely on my own knowledge and follow that up with a few private (cheaper) blood tests maybe? Of course your issues could be far more complicated than that so the best of luck to you.
 
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