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The testing debate continues......

the_anticarb said:
Am I the only one to find an honest nurse? The diabetes lead nurse at my GP (not a DSN) said that whilst I'm still entitled to strips as an insulin user, the amount is to be reviewed as they've been told by the PCT not to prescribe more than absolutely necessary and that type 2s can't have any at all. She said this was crazy and how were people supposed to know what to eat if they could not test their blood. She seemed quite miffed about it all but said there was nothing they could do as the PCT was trying to save money.

I am glad she did not pump out the party line of 'Type 2s don't need to test'. Perhaps she has to say that to the type 2s, but felt she could be honest to me as I'm not a type 2 so they will continue to prescribe me strips.

There is a massive market out there for cheap test strips - why oh why have they not been invented? Bayer contour currently retaliing at £28 per box in boots - that's over 50p per strip. In normal market economics surely a cheaper competitor would come along to undercut the current manufacturers and take market share - why isn't this happening? They can't be that expensive to produce, can they? It's not like they've just been invented, they've been about for a while.
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My strips for my SD codefree meter are £6.99 for 50 with free P&P. I just buy a couple of hundred at a time and that is the same amount of money as the Bayer Contour. It's a real scandal diabetics are being ripped off this way.
 
Maybe now that t2s being denied strips this will create the market for cheap strips. What worries me more though is that people will just assume they don't need to test and follow the DUK high carb diet, leading to problems later down the line. No wonder less than 50% of diabetics in this country get an hba1c of 7.5 or less.

I know when I was younger and foolish and didn't test, at least I knew I was doing something wrong as I was constantly nagged at by my parents to test my blood. Today's newly diagnosed diabetics won't even think they are doing anything wrong. They are being completely sold down the river by this government!
 
My strips for my SD codefree meter are £6.99 for 50 with free P&P. I just buy a couple of hundred at a time and that is the same amount of money as the Bayer Contour. It's a real scandal diabetics are being ripped off this way
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It isn't just people who buy their own, that's relatively recent. The NHS, other health providers thoughout the world are all paying high costs for strips.
If had been cheaper then there would be far less of an impetus to stop prescribing them. Unfortunately the providers can cite evidence from scientific trials that prescribing them isn't beneficial. (They're right, there is absolutely no point in prescribing strips without support and education. No-one wants to prick their fingers, just to write the figure in a book. )

It's not just the NHS that are stopping T2s getting strips. The French government announced last Feb that they would only pay for 1 strip a day for any person with D. It was to be implemented, 4 weeks later from the beginning of March. :crazy:
A couple of weeks of lobying and TV news slots (lots of coverage of children with T1), they did an about turn but only for T1 and T2s treated with insulin. (T2 on medications now get a maximum of 200 a year). I suspect if you did a survey around the world you would find big restrictions on the testing strips allowed.

SD codefree has potentially a very large market.
 
I tend to agree with Phoenix. I see no point wasting NHS resources with blanket long term prescriptions of test strips for all newly diagnosed T2's. It's the one size fits all approach that I object to. A better approach would be to prescribe an initial small amount of strips, educate and then see if the person actually tests and even if they do test actually pays any attention to what the tests tell them. The key in my mind is the education bit. If T2's were told more of the hard truth about complications, levels and the diet restrictions required then perhaps more would take their condition seriously. It would be interesting to find out the relative cost to the NHS of say providing 4 tests / day at "SD Codefree" type costs compared to the costs of long term drug treatments.

Ideally the NHS should be picking the most appropriate treatment for each person rather than a dogmatic "do test" "don't test" approach and it certainly shouldn't operate by post code lottery.
 
phoenix said:
It's not just the NHS that are stopping T2s getting strips. The French government announced last Feb that they would only pay for 1 strip a day for any person with D. It was to be implemented, 4 weeks later from the beginning of March. :crazy:
A couple of weeks of lobying and TV news slots (lots of coverage of children with T1), they did an about turn but only for T1 and T2s treated with insulin. (T2 on medications now get a maximum of 200 a year). I suspect if you did a survey around the world you would find big restrictions on the testing strips allowed.
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Crikey ......one strip a day for insulin dependants :shock:



Thank goodness the French Government did a U-turn :)
 
If a normal healthy non diabetic person's body 'tests' their blood, releasing insulin in response to higher than normal blood sugar, then surely any approach to diabetes, which is trying to mimic the healthy state, should include a testing component?
Diabetes is homeostasis gone wrong, homeostasis involves feedback, feedback involves testing the current state in order to modify it.

If testing isn't important why is it only now, 90 years after insulin first invented, that they are saying not to do it? For years they had **** tests, first the tablet ones, then the dip sticks, then when i was diagnosed 20 years ago the blood machines that took 2 mins to get a result, then the modern machines.....to nothing at all. Sounds like progress to me.
 
phoenix said:
lucylocket61 said:
This article today is interesting http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/health-17487431

Isnt it obvious that having GP's like mine, who wont test until pushed, and is depriving us of test strips and meters to control our Diabetes, isnt working??
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The picture of someone testing their blood is somewhat ironic
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Quite agree. Due to neuropathy I have no feeling in either little or ring fingers. I never test like that, but the sides of my fingers look like tea bags :D I have to really examine my fingers to find a spot I can stab. However, back to the issue of testing. I have tested daily, and around 6-8 times a day. I'm sure once I feel happier with knowing exactly what I can eat this will ease, but for now, it is just so reassuring to know I can test at will to see how certain things effect my BG. Of course those who follow their GP's diet and continue with carbs won't test and won't have a clue they are doing so much harm. NO offense to forum members who don't LC - just my own personal feelings.

I do wonder when I speak to my GP next and tell him I have begun educating myself and dropping my BG numbers he will play ball and prescribe strips. I'm not holding my breath!
 
I am already very nervous about the prospect of ever going on to insulin - mainly because i don't trus HCp's to advise me correctly and am afraid of hypos . weight gain and then increased insulin.
At present i choose io buy most of my own strips although I am allowed them on prescription. I only ask occasionally
so they cannot tell me i can do without.
Of course there is no guarantee that I will always be able to buy them.
If there is a movement toward further restricting strips for those on insulin sounds like another reason to avoid it.
 
Unbeliever said:
I am already very nervous about the prospect of ever going on to insulin - mainly because i don't trus HCp's to advise me correctly and am afraid of hypos . weight gain and then increased insulin.
At present i choose io buy most of my own strips although I am allowed them on prescription. I only ask occasionally
so they cannot tell me i can do without.
Of course there is no guarantee that I will always be able to buy them.
If there is a movement toward further restricting strips for those on insulin sounds like another reason to avoid it.
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Do you low carb Unbeliever? Not sure if you do, but if you do and they put you on a basal bolus regime, you won't have to use much for the bolus at all and the basal alone will probably not make you go hypo very often. I just use lantus and metformin when I'm low carbing, if I want the odd carby thing I can inject my novorapid but i try to save that for high days and holidays. On a low carb (<50g) diet I don't need any at all. I very rarely go hypo on lantus to and the low carb/low insulin regime prevents weight gain. So whilst in theory the eat what you like and inject for it a la dafne approach works for a bit, I personally have found the side effects of hypos and weight gain intolerable. But low carbing seems to fix this problem -for me. I know everyone is different and others can hi-carb without too much bother.
 
Thanks anti-carb, Yes i do low carb. Its he only thing which worked for me . Thanks fr the information. I am afraid the distrust [well founded IMHO} may be a little harder to sort out.
 
I lost 2 stone three years ago using lantus, on low carb diet, reduced my basal from 28 u to 12 u cut out bolus altogether, lost 2stone plus hba1c went down from in the 12s ( :oops: ) to the 6s - so insulin doesn't necessary mean weight gain. On a high carb diet it does though. Oh and i had very few hypos too.
 
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