Hi everyone. Just wondered if this has happened to anyone else. I've had diabetes, type two, for roughly twenty four years. I first went to my doctor and told him it looked like I shave my legs and I have blotchy patches on my shins that bleed easily. He asked me if I smoked, which I did at the time, and he told me not to worry about it. I spoke to a different doctor about six months later telling him I suffered from sweats that would drench me and I was up every couple of hours during the night to go to the loo. He was looking around the room with a look on his face of total disinterest and boredom and his only advice was lose some weight. Eighteen years later, I had a routine blood test in the surgery and four days later, I got a phone call from a practice nurse telling me to drop whatever I was doing and get to the surgery as quickly as possible. She explained to me that I had diabetes and needed to get on medication urgently. I was also given a blood test kit and testing strips on script. I eventually got so frustrated with the practice that I changed to another one and all seemed to be going well until recently when I had a review and the practice nurse told me I didn't need testing strips anymore and got the doctor to stop them. When I protested, the doctor asked me what I needed them for and I replied as politely as I could saying 'What do you think I need them for??' but they remained firm and stopped the test strips. I recently spoke to the nurse after another review and had a bit of a dig at her and she told me that because I was on Metformin, they weren't allowed to let me have strips on prescription. I told her that a friend of mine who was registered with them had just been given them on script after her buying her own for several years and she was on Metformin but the nurse just came back that they weren't allowed to give them to me. I can't help feeling that this is wrong and unfair and that they are lying to me but have no idea how to go about countering it. Any suggestions?? Thanks in advance. George.
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Testing strips stopped by doctor.
- Thread starter Muddiford
- Start Date
- Messages
- 5,918
- Type of diabetes
- Type 2
- Treatment type
- Diet only
not getting strips on prescription is pretty normal for a T2 on no meds or just Metformin, lots of us T2 here have to fund our own strips, I’ve been self funding for many years. It’s not fair but usually unless you can put up a very good argument for them on prescription then you probably won’t get them back
If you want to go down the route of self funding then prices of strips can vary enormously, I will tag our lovely member @Rachox who has some info on the cheaper meters and strips and where to but them. A lot of us here use the Tee2 meter
If you want to go down the route of self funding then prices of strips can vary enormously, I will tag our lovely member @Rachox who has some info on the cheaper meters and strips and where to but them. A lot of us here use the Tee2 meter
On the face of it, that sounds very wrong. The GP Practice should have a formal complaints procedure to enable patients to get answers to problems like yours. I t would be worth contacting the Practice Manager for a preliminary meeting to raise your concerns at an informal level. it might be helpful to take a friend along. The requirement for diabetic patients to manage their condition does include access to monitoring by using test strips and you should normally be able to get these on prescription ! If you are a driver it is even more important that you are able to monitor your condition. Check on "ombudsman.org.uk" for full advice about raising concerns for more info. Best of luck!
Hi @Muddiford and welcome to the forum, thanks for the tag @lovinglife , here’s some info on UK meters, and to be clear I have no commercial connections with any of the companies mentioned.
HOME HEALTH have the Gluco Navii, which is a fairly new model and seems to be getting good reviews.
https://homehealth-uk.com/all-produ...ose-meter-test-strips-choose-mmol-l-or-mg-dl/
Links to the strips for future orders:
https://homehealth-uk.com/all-products/glucose-navii-blood-glucose-test-strips-50-strip-pack/
Then they sell the older SD Code Free, details to be found here!
https://homehealth-uk.com/all-products/codefree-blood-glucose-monitoring-system-mmoll-or-mgdl/
SPIRIT HEALTHCARE have a meter called the Tee2 + which is quite popular:
https://shop.spirit-health.co.uk/co...e2-blood-glucose-meter?variant=19264017268793
The strips are to be found here:
https://shop.spirit-health.co.uk/co...py-of-tee2-test-strips?variant=19264017367097
If there is a choice of units of measurement then ‘mmol/L’ are the standard units in the UK, ‘mg/dl’ in the US, other countries may vary.
Don’t forget to check the box if you have pre diabetes or diabetes so you can buy VAT free. (for all meters and strips)
HOME HEALTH have the Gluco Navii, which is a fairly new model and seems to be getting good reviews.
https://homehealth-uk.com/all-produ...ose-meter-test-strips-choose-mmol-l-or-mg-dl/
Links to the strips for future orders:
https://homehealth-uk.com/all-products/glucose-navii-blood-glucose-test-strips-50-strip-pack/
Then they sell the older SD Code Free, details to be found here!
https://homehealth-uk.com/all-products/codefree-blood-glucose-monitoring-system-mmoll-or-mgdl/
SPIRIT HEALTHCARE have a meter called the Tee2 + which is quite popular:
https://shop.spirit-health.co.uk/co...e2-blood-glucose-meter?variant=19264017268793
The strips are to be found here:
https://shop.spirit-health.co.uk/co...py-of-tee2-test-strips?variant=19264017367097
If there is a choice of units of measurement then ‘mmol/L’ are the standard units in the UK, ‘mg/dl’ in the US, other countries may vary.
Don’t forget to check the box if you have pre diabetes or diabetes so you can buy VAT free. (for all meters and strips)
The Balladeer
Well-Known Member
- Messages
- 52
- Type of diabetes
- Type 1
- Treatment type
- Insulin
- Dislikes
- arrogant doctors spreading misinformation insulin price
- thanks for the recommendations I wanna comment about the sd code free from a personal experience last year I bought the SD code free considering the cheap price of the test strips, Every time I tested even tho my calculation and my ratio were correct the results came back most of the time like 7 of 10 times higher than what I expected it feels wrong so I thought maybe the device I bought was faulty or the test strips expired I bought a new one new test strips to my surprise its the same not correct again always higher so i decided to compare it with other devices on hand I compared it with accue check active accu check performa bionime gm 550 bionime gm700 and freestyle when i got the opportunity i compared it with lab results wasnt surprised when it came as i expected higher its always higher by 2.0 /2.5 mmol I dunno if u like me consider that number high but for me, at hypo situation that's very bad I can't trust it sometimes it was even higher by 3.9 / 4.0 mmol in the end i wanna say maybe was unlucky enough to have 2 faulty devices at once maybe im nerd about glucometres maybe the people who use it didnt use enough devices to notice the diffrence or 2 mmo/l is normal for them in the end i want to say that from my contribution maybe u think that sd code free is bad its not my personal experience does not constitute that sd code free is a bad device i hope someone with more experience can benefit us regard this matter
