pump

I don't live in Scotland (I live in Yorkshire) but I've never been on a DAFNE course or had a psych evaluation. I've been diabetic for 18 years and been on a pump for nearly 2 years. My diabetic consultant had been suggesting to me that I go on the pump for a couple of years, and I refused the idea, but after my control just got worse and worse, I changed my mind - From when I told my consultant I wanted a pump, it was about two months before I got one.

Perhaps it is worth changing your hospital? Different hospitals in England have differing opinions on who should have pumps and who shouldn't.

Good luck with your quest - My pump has been a life saver for me.

Hi Evette,
Scotland is really bad for providing pumps and also has the worst controlled diabetics in the UK Grampian being the worst (lucky enough to be my area) I'm currently fighting a what seems to be a never ending battle with MP's ministers and nhs cheifs to change the situation.
To start with you definitely do not have to undergo a pshciatric evaluation to go on a pump!!
You also do not have to go on a dafne course (although it is useful)
You do need training along the lines of how to carb count and how a pump works but your hospital should already have people on pumps according to the scottish government every area has. They then should be able to then provide this sort of training themselves without having to wait for a DAFNE course.
There also should be no waiting lists (the scottish parliament and the regulations state this) although most hospitals tell paitients this it's not allowed if this happens please try and get it in writting or tape record the conversation.
The best hospitals for pump provision are based in edinburgh region and up through to dundee. Glasgow region is very bad as is grampian and inverness all the inverness paitients get referred to grampian. most of the western isles paitients get referred to glasgow area. orkney and shetland get referrred to grampian as well.
Off the top of my head the regulations are that you have bad control consistently above 8 or 9 %
Have bad hypos without warning that need assistance.
Or have a lifestyle that requires assistance with control eg shift work night work, working off shore certain diet restrictions etc.
I'll follow with a post tonight with all the rules and regulations my friend has just arrived for a visit. Feel free to PM if you wanted to talk in detail.
Good luck, Laura

Scotland has a different set of rules than England&Wales,

Scotland does have it's own version of INPUT, can't remember contacts off hand, but if you check input.me.uk I'm sure that they've got the contact details there for Scotland if not if you contact them they will be more than happy to give them to you.

What I do know that similar problems to pump access exist on both sides of the borders..

With some clinics creating all sort of hoops to jump through before the patient is given a pump..

And yes some clinics do insist that you do DAFNE/Carb counting course before you are considered for pumping, others also insist that you have a psychiatric evaluation before consideration etc..

I had to battle for over 3 years to get my funding, as my clinic isn't pump friendly better now then they used to be though, so don't give up it can be a very hard battle at times, but well worth holding on in there and battling it out.

Hi Evette,
me again here is the nice guidelines however NHS scotland is completely seperate from the rest of the UK and doesn't have to follow these guidelines they just have to read them and what they do is up to them (hence why everyone has free prescriptions and all teenage girls get the HPV vaccine etc but also has it's downsides when it comes to pumps)
http://guidance.nice.org.uk/TA151
Also about a year ago diabetes scotland started a campagin to increase the use of pumps and to stop the post code lottery and from that Nichola sturgeon (with some nagging from me) promised to increase the provision of insulin pumps in scotland so that all of people under 18 had access to them and 2000 would be available to everyone else which tripples the amount currently available. Although I havn't seen any of this promise come into form in my area as yet, I've been waiting 3 years for grampian to take over the funding for mine I'm still being funded by Somerset and keep being turned down due to the lack of funding (apparently) here's the link to the story.
http://www.diabetes.org.uk/In_Your_Area ... pCampaign/
Here's also a link to the petition that was handed in
http://www.diabetes.org.uk/upload/Scotl ... 0pumps.pdf
There is some really useful info in this and if you google insulin pump provision scotland there are a lot more reports and reccomendations by the government for the long term savings for health boards if they increase the number of pumps to paitients. I do have the links but they are on my work computer and I'm home recovering from an op It'll be a couple of weeks before I'm back.
Next thing is pumps are usually only available to the people who research them themselves and are very opininionated in terms of wanting one so keep struggling on and being forceful to get one if that's what you want. INPUT are also really helpful as mentioned before to help people gain access to pumps that's how I got mine by following their advise. For me it ment requesting to change consultants as there is usually one in each hospital that is in charge of the pump programme so no point being with another consultant if only one is dealing with pumps. They had the info of who was in charge of which bits for all the different hospitals and being able to put you in touch with other people on pumps close to you.
Good Luck don't give up Laura