Pray tell, what did the distributor say?
We had a very, very long chat about all of this, and other things. To be brief though; the SD Codefree meter and strips is approved for choice on the NHS. The reality is that the strips cost the NHS the same as the end user/consumer, so that's nice, unlike many other manufacturers who retail at significantly increased costs to those offered to the NHS.
The difference lies in the supply of meters, via GP surgeries. By-and-large, the other biggy suppliers give supplies of meters to GPs free of charge (discreetly suggesting those meter consumables will be prescribed to patients), and therefore only the cost of the strips come out of the GP's prescribing budgets. Homehealth, UK distributors of the SD Codefree, do not supply the meters free to GPs. If they wish to have a supply to give away, they also have to buy them, and they don't.
I think it's a great shame, when we consider that the cost difference almost pays for a meter with every couple of packs of strips. I don't know if purchased meters would come out of a different cost centre for practices, but that's the only potential rationale I can think of.
It all seems a bit bonkers to me. At some stage, I will ask my GP (even though I appear to have no chance of ever being prescribed strips) how it works, but I've never had little enough to discuss, to allow this to come onto my appointment's agenda.