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Got Insulin Passport !

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H

HOBIE

Well-Known Member
Relationship to Diabetes
Type 1
Got insulin passpot from Nhs yesterday & not happy ! As a T1 99.9 % of medical emergancy is "LOW" bg. So why is there a page of ____p about 1oom/ units prefilled pen & other confusing stuff. It is so "BAD" & i was looking forward to getting it, WILL NOT BE ANYWHERE NEAR ME ! Some one Needs paying OFF ! 😡😡😡:mad
 
Sorry HOBIE - what's an Insulin Passport?
 
Sorry for being so negative but feel like ripping it up. The design of the "thing" must have been done by someone who has not got clue !! It was a fantastic way of treating people with Big D. 😡😡
 
I'm voting for Scottish Independence, we will then stay away from rubbish like this.
 
I'll wait until I see the Passport before I comment on it.

But, I reckon that carrying, at all times, a blood glucose test kit and pencil case containing pen with short acting insulin cartridge, plus a spare of short and long acting and spare needles and syringe is more use than carrying a booklet that will get wet / squashed / become unreadable before I / NHS staff need to consult it.

And while, it's useful to know about things like pre-filled pens, and I know they suit some people, so should be available, I would NEVER consider using one, due to additional environmental costs of both manufacture and disposal.
 
I await with baited breath.

Not sure who it's meant to benefit.

I'm on disposables because it was the only viable product with 1u increments I could get at the time.🙂

Rob
 
I had never heard of this, so assume it will be mentioned at some point (though I'm not due for annual review until after the suggested August deadline)

There's an example (I think) on the page that Margie found:
http://www.nrls.npsa.nhs.uk/EasySit...setID=130400&type=full&servicetype=Attachment

Which is a bit like the info I filled in on an SOS Talisman soon after diagnosis. I still carry it with me, though to be honest I rarely hurry to update it so (much like this passport I assume) it is actually full of wildly inaccurate/outdated information. My Talisman, for example, still thinks I'm on Humalog and Lantus.

I can understand the idea, but I'm really not sure it's going to work.
 
Exactly, Everydayupsanddowns - it would be almost as bad to have health professionals faced with an unconscious / uncommunicative person to use old information (eg former insulins regime) than to know nothing.

As I said, I reckon that carrying insulin cartridges is more up to date and prectical than carrying a passport, and doses vary so much, that it's only possible for me to express a range of units (not a single number for each dose) / perhaps a ratio for short acting insulin when clinic staff ask me once a year.

By the way, the Passport might be better if it were printed on waterproof paper, although that brings its own problems, such as ink and writing wearing off - orienteering and mountain marathon forums are full of discussion about suitability of various map paper and ink types and laminating systems.
 
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Here the booklet that goes with it

www.doncaster.nhs.uk/upload_files/P...formation booklet (for local information).pdf

And the passport itself..

http://www.doncaster.nhs.uk/upload_...passport contents (for local information).pdf

Not sure who thought out the design for it, as well how much medication and how often do the think diabetics change their insulin?

Half a page for your medications you take, while you have a very small space to give hypo treatment instruction.. I don't actually take any medication other than insulin..

As for the insulin record, well how often do we change our insulin, I've been on Humalog almost as long as it's been out?

But basically it's an update of the original card duffer they used to give us...
 
Copepod said:
Exactly, Everydayupsanddowns - it would be almost as bad to have health professionals faced with an unconscious / uncommunicative person to use old information (eg former insulins regime) than to know nothing.
Click to expand...

To be honest... I would *hope* that the fact I've got a lump of plastic dangling from a bit of strting inserted into my belly might get spotted at some point... But you never can tell really! I guess many paramedics have probably never seen an insulin pump!
 
Ellie Jones said:
...As for the insulin record, well how often do we change our insulin, I've been on Humalog almost as long as it's been out?

But basically it's an update of the original card duffer they used to give us...
Click to expand...

My thoughts precisely - I've been on lantus and novorapid since diagnosis.
 
I have a plastic credit card type ID in my wallet that says I'm a diabetic on insulin. On the back it has my name and spaces for 'my usual doses of humalog' and another line for humulin. I've left them blank.

Why could they not produce something like that, which is more durable than paper, as copepod said, and would be simple to carry in wallet/purse?

Rob
 
Northerner said:
My thoughts precisely - I've been on lantus and novorapid since diagnosis.
Click to expand...

Not quite the case for everyone though

For me: Mixtard, Actrapid & Protaphane, Actrapid & Insulatard, Novorapid & Insulatard (I think), Novorapid & Lantus (bit of a pause here)... then more recently Humalog and Lantus for about 2 years, and now Novorapid again.
 
everydayupsanddowns said:
To be honest... I would *hope* that the fact I've got a lump of plastic dangling from a bit of strting inserted into my belly might get spotted at some point... But you never can tell really! I guess many paramedics have probably never seen an insulin pump!
Click to expand...

A while ago, Julia mentioned being a "casualty", pretending to have knocked herself unconscious on a mountain bike track, for trainee rescue volunteers (humans & dogs), who failed to find her pump, nor look for any tags etc. http://www.diabetessupport.co.uk/boards/showthread.php?t=24539
 
Copepod said:
A while ago, Julia mentioned being a "casualty", pretending to have knocked herself unconscious on a mountain bike track, for trainee rescue volunteers (humans & dogs), who failed to find her pump, nor look for any tags etc. http://www.diabetessupport.co.uk/boards/showthread.php?t=24539
Click to expand...

Thats one thing that worried me. The passport says 'If I am ill or fainting my usual hypo treatment is .....[write your own]'. If a member of the general public found this they might give you hypo treatment even when you weren't having a hypo.😱
It strikes me this is a clumsy attempt to adapt a diabetic emergency card.

As to waterproof, well the driving licence isn't (the paper part). I would be inclined to produce my own version and laminate it.
 
Hmm - doesn't exactly allow for pumping insulin either, does it?

As it's also for use when you are an in-patient HOBIE - maybe they do still use other strengths of insulin in hospitals?

I mean 20u/ml, 40u/ml and 80u/ml were in common usage in the past and I haven't a clue now, as I say, in an 'in-patient' setting. And if another patient on the ward is on something different, and with the staff being different on every shift, you have a good foundation for a recipe of disaster really.
 
trophywench said:
Hmm - doesn't exactly allow for pumping insulin either, does it?
Click to expand...

Of course it does. for me it's Novorapid 10ml vials. And I have put in brackets (for use in insulin pump)

It's not an emergency card, it's to reduce prescribing errors. So you don't need to write how many units you are taking (unless you want to). The name of insulin and the form it comes in.

e.g. Novorapid disposable flexpen
Novorapid 3ml cartridge for use in Novopen 4
Novorapid 3ml cartridge for use in Novopen demi
etc


Typically junior doctors in general settings don't have any clue about insulins so this is to help people get prescribed the right insulin.


It will be useful to look back and see when insulins are changed. I was on lantus previously, but then changed to Humalin i, now on a pump. But I can't really remember when I changed.
 
Thanks for everyones input ! I realy feel someone is getting "paid" in an office making NOT VERY GOOD CHOICES ! I am on a pump & would hate to think a unqualified person was pushing buttons. HYPO is what it should be about ! When you are in hosp they have a white box that tells them things (computer) 🙄
 
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