sq pen????

looks interesting!

Like you say, as usually n ot available in the UK.

S.Q. Pen consumables

dman said:

Hi there.
The diabetes centre i attend wanted me to use a sq pen.
the doctor gave me a prescription for a starter kit.I handed it in to boots, they said it would take a week to arrive.
they phoned earlier to say that the pen is back logged. It is made abroad and cannot be obtained, as no one distributing it in the u.k.
Has any one got any more info to help me out.
thanks a lot.
dman

Click to expand...

I have used the needle free system for about 5-6 years. I started with the MHI 500 pen (the original pen from MHI -this firm is the one who designed the pen)
I am now using the sq -x pen. A totally brilliant device and its really quick to inject......all over in a fraction of a second. I inject 4 times a day.

The original firm who manufactured the devices passed the distribution to a firm went bust late last year. I only found this info out when having problems ordering consumables.... I last year put in a presription for a sq x pen but it never arrived. The firm suppling the consumablesl went bust, then re emerged again and are still trading but not showing a sniff of any sq pen products!!!!!
The managing director of the firm who now looks after the devices who are based in holland told me about the uk distributors going bust.
New UK distributors are: Sagani LTD, Watford Hertfordshire.Telephone-number: 01923-251777. I have had my prescriptions re-issued by my G.P.
fingers crossed.

Hope this helps, Louie

I found this website for the sq pen tonight, the U.K. seems to have been missed out on their website agenda.

http://www.sqpen.nl/

This UK site ineeds updating http://www.sq-pen.com/index.php?menuID=75& This has been "under construction" for months They should have posted a redirection tab.

Hope this helps,

Cheers Louie.

If there was competition for jet free injector systems instead of a single manufacturer things would look brighter. I am now looking for alternatives not for a second rate service who on the face of it are more interested in £££££'s rather than customer satisfaction.

Just shows how pharmo-capitalists make money our of us at the expense of us. I got stuck re nor re-oedering a script when my GP was open. I tried 5 late night chemists top buy a lantus solo star pen but none had them, had to go without that night.

I get really pi***d off whenm I take my diabetes pharmo-quartermaster order to a chemist only tro be told "Weve got this but not that" why are we not just given a......... swipe card to get our kit at a hospiral pharmacy as opposed to trawling tound chemists who invairably don'r have everything in. It's insulin for ........ sake not cough medicine!!

RPNKW

Apologies for bad spelling in last post but was having a rant re difficulty in uk getting our kit and like I said, why not a standard basic insulin delivery tool and a swipe card for the local hospital pharmacy as opposed to seeing your GP surgery ar 24 to 48 hours notice and trawling scrrpts round chemists that often do not have our stuhh in. Some of us have lives and jobs don't you know?

RPNKW

Just a post re SQ pen. Started using one on Tuesday (24th March) Super system. After inital probs with Dr perscribing (he thought cream might help the needle phobia), the starter pack and consumables came through in days. The item is a special order through Unichem, so was recomended by them to use Boots chemist. Hope all you peeps now get what you need.

Hey Stu, congratulations in getting your pen.

I have used the SQ system for about two years and before that the original pen (MHI 500)

Its a really good system but watch out for "wet shots" - these are when you dont quite hold the device at 90 degrees to your skin and some insulin may spray out on delivery -this happen very occasionally, so careful blood testing is really required.

when you put in your prescription for the pen did you have to pay anything extra like a handling charge for the unit (+consumables if you ordered them?)

My local chemist has been waiting for about four-five weeks for a prescription I handed in. He told me that the delay was due to a handling charge being levied since-getting the goods shipped from holland to the UK + the leffect of the £ against the euro has made the £ weak. This means that it costs more to ship to the UK, therefore for the difference to be met a handling charge has been levied. The NHS will not meet the difference, so until a resolution is found no shipment of units will transpire. will after this Bank Holiday go back to my chemist and see if all is now well?


As previously stated I have been ( + others who confirmed on this forum) have been waiting for our orders, if anybody knows if the dispute over payments has been sorted out, please let us know.

thanks,

Louie

Hi I am a needle phobia and have to inject 4 times a day, I can't even watch a film of someone else having an injection let alone on my self.

I have tried the SQ pen and hated it, the pressure needed to fire the system of was way to hard, which meant that the insulin would arrive in the muscle not in the subcutaneous fat level. In fact I tried it against an apple, work surface and skin and it wouldn't fire off, I sent it back for recalibration and returned the same.

Even the nurse that demonstrated it couldn't use it properly and couldn't get it to fire!

They are not that small a device either, and work on a spring bases to fire the insulin in, I was also told that you have to account for extra insulin as the delivery system injected less than what was on the dial.

This was about 5-6 months ago, I went back to the standard pens in the end. Gave it up as a bad job, they sound great, look fine, but I and a couple of others that went on to it found it more trouble than it was worth. I was told that bruising occurred due to the impact of insulin, can't verify either way as I could never get the thing to fire off on flesh, just kept pushing the skin against muscle and never fired.

Sorry to rain on anyones parade, but I have heard nothing good about them apart from on this forum, and my own experience with the pen was as good as a "chocolate kettle". In the end I'm sure they will get it right, but until they do, it wasn't for me.

I also looked at the inhaler system to and was given a talk on this possibility, this to is still early days and the effects of being on it did not outweigh the benefits.

Be interested in other actual user experiences as to how they got the pen to work against the skin and force needed.


ATB

Just to let you all know my experience with the sq-pen.

I'm late onset type 1 (yeh, great isn't it), inject about 4-5 times a day Novorapid and 1 Levimir at night.

I _hate_ needles, can use them if I have to, but I really don't like them. I found out about the sq-pen from surfing the web about 9 months back. It took me ages to arrange to get one, both GP and my consultant didn't know what it was. I had to fight hard to get one, but eventually I did manage to get it.

Personally I think it's great. A little bulky but OK. Not having to carry and dispose of needles (as well as not use them !) is great. It's a little bit fiddly to use till you get the knack, but after that it's easy.

However I have had trouble. Apart from the trouble getting hold of one, and the parts supply issues, I had the end of my first sq-pen jam and I could not change the nozzle. I carried on useing it till the nozzle shattered. While this has been going on my local pharmacy has been fighting to get a replacement under warentee (it cost me £250, the NHS would not pay for it, but they will pay for the comsumables) and eventually I have been told that the UK distributor is going to replace it with a new one under garentee (I'm waiting on that now).

So not all plain sailing. But I've demoed it to my hospital consultant and she thinks it great too, just nobody seams to know about it ! God knows why the NHS isn't pushing it because I did the math on the cost with my local GP and it definately works out cheaper for the NHS compared to the needles and standard insulin pen disposables.

I really hope other will give it a try, it certainly is better for me.

Best Regards

Chris

*******WARNING********

Hello everyone, new to this site but I have been using the needless devices for over 10 years now and apart from my first one way back in the 1990's, the rest have been free ever since on the NHS, starting with the MHI 500 through to the SQX and SQ pens. Like everyone else, by the sounds of it, in the past I have had difficulties in obtaining replacement nozzles and vial adapters....BUT

I have just been informed by my doctors that I would NOT be able to order a repeat free prescription as the nozzles and vial adapters have been black listed, but I could still pay to get them!!!

This has only happened today 17th August 2010 - I would be interested to hear if anyone else comes across this situation.

Thanks