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Please Remember: Members are only permitted to share their own experiences. Members are not qualified to give medical advice. Additionally, everyone manages their health differently. Please be respectful of other people's opinions about their own diabetes management.
Hello
- Thread starter Crad
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Bruce Stephens
Well-Known Member
- Relationship to Diabetes
- Type 1
Cost.
Bruce Stephens
Well-Known Member
- Relationship to Diabetes
- Type 1
I think there are reasons for not being excessively enthusiastic about CGM. https://www.cochrane.org/CD008101/E...nitoring-systems-for-type-1-diabetes-mellitus looks positive, but not overly so (in my opinion).
So should CCGs recommend CGMs more broadly? It seems a tough sell to me. If you click through to see some of the details, even things which (as a Libre user who likes the system) seem uncontroversial like quality of life measures don't really change much. (Maybe that's because of some differences between CGM and Libre: no alarms (yet) with Libre, and it's a bit simpler, so there's less stuff to deal with. I doubt it, though; I suspect research on the Libre will be similarly moderately positive.)
And GPs, DSNs, etc., know very well that almost all patients won't be prescribed a CGM (odds are better if the patient's a child). Hard to be enthusiastic about something you're not allowed to offer.
So should CCGs recommend CGMs more broadly? It seems a tough sell to me. If you click through to see some of the details, even things which (as a Libre user who likes the system) seem uncontroversial like quality of life measures don't really change much. (Maybe that's because of some differences between CGM and Libre: no alarms (yet) with Libre, and it's a bit simpler, so there's less stuff to deal with. I doubt it, though; I suspect research on the Libre will be similarly moderately positive.)
And GPs, DSNs, etc., know very well that almost all patients won't be prescribed a CGM (odds are better if the patient's a child). Hard to be enthusiastic about something you're not allowed to offer.
Ok, it is all a bit depressing and tends to make you less enthusiastic with the struggle of Diabetes, to me I think for Diabetics who like to try and lead a normal life as possible, going out doing hobbies (walking, bird-watching, working at home etc) this piece of kit Freestyle Libre is one of the best piece of help we could have, being able to keep a check on ones BG so you don't become a pain to anybody else. I would of thought it also feeds the Consultants important information (it does) because they tell you that you signed a contract that you are going to improve your HbA1C and use less Blood Check Sticks and if you don't keep to the contact, it is taken away, the information and ease of checking BG is also very important to the patient, also I would of thought in the long run, your hopefully improved control is going to save the NHS money in the long term, but I do realize it is Jobsworth and the £££ at the bottom of the page nowadays and the high cost of Diabetes to the NHS, so I think that Diabetes like a rusty car does not look good in a Showroom !!
Bruce Stephens
Well-Known Member
- Relationship to Diabetes
- Type 1
As far as I understand it that's the basic criterion: does it save money. And (so far) I think that's not known. I tend to agree that it's surely not going to cost money if it's offered to (pretty much) any patients who want to use it; they're presumably interested enough that they will use it effectively.
It also seems obvious that for some people (like us) it works really well and is a transformational piece of technology (so much that we'll spend our own money buying it). The 6 month trial tries to capture some of that but the questions on the form didn't seem to me to be that useful; possibly the form at the end will allow more.
(I still think it's (Libre or something rather similar) likely to become the usual way of monitoring people with T1 within a few years.)
SB2015
Well-Known Member
- Relationship to Diabetes
- Type 1
The cost of Libre compared to CGM (a sensor linked to a pump such as Medtronic 670G) is a lot cheaper.
It is accessible to people on MDI as well as those that use pumps. As you say it is flexible and can help a great deal to head of hypos and hypers. It is good to see that there has been a change from sets of extensive criteria set by each CCG, to a national set of criteria and central funding which should reduce the post code lottery.
CGM is a lot more expensive, and available to very few people. The individual sensors can be made to last a similar length of time to the Libre (but not officially) but you add in the transmitter and the pump to which it talks to, and it starts to add up.
I hope that the access to The Libre grows and that access increases. In the same way as the insulin pens were initially not available on prescription, I hope that the Libre just becomes part of the normal resources available. When it comes down to it cost is the major factor.
It is accessible to people on MDI as well as those that use pumps. As you say it is flexible and can help a great deal to head of hypos and hypers. It is good to see that there has been a change from sets of extensive criteria set by each CCG, to a national set of criteria and central funding which should reduce the post code lottery.
CGM is a lot more expensive, and available to very few people. The individual sensors can be made to last a similar length of time to the Libre (but not officially) but you add in the transmitter and the pump to which it talks to, and it starts to add up.
I hope that the access to The Libre grows and that access increases. In the same way as the insulin pens were initially not available on prescription, I hope that the Libre just becomes part of the normal resources available. When it comes down to it cost is the major factor.
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