Hello, New person..

[Godber70]

Hello All,

Hope you are all keeping warm on this wintry day.

I have recently been diagnosed (Dec 2023) with Type 2 Diabetes. Currently I have been prescribed x2 metformin and x1 dapaflozin to take in the mornings. I feel I have adapted well and found the recipes on the Diabetes UK website quite good. I've managed to get my weight down 3 stone to near my right weight (12 stone). I am due to have my first annual review in December 2024.
However, problems have arisen and I need some advice. I appreciate this may be beyond even the very good support offered on this forum.

I am single and recently moved from the UK to Northern Ireland (October) to be nearer my family. I somewhat naively thought transferring over my UK GP Surgery to a Northern Ireland Surgery would be easy. It has not been. In short, I have 4 ½ weeks of metformin left and I have been advised today by the Business Services Organisation (the body issuing Health Cards / Family Practitioner Services - GP Registrations - Business Services Organisation (BSO) Website) they have not received the paperwork from my new GP and also have a 3-week backlog.

I went back to the GP this morning and practically pleaded with them to send the paperwork which was initially delivered by me 24.10 and chased by me 14.11. I will check again tomorrow but I am not hopeful. It appears GP services in NI may be a little understaffed. They have advised me my UK GP is responsible for any prescriptions until I am registered.

Obviously, this is worrying me. Luckily my father was in the UK last week and was able to pick up another prescription for the metformin from my GP there. Even though they told me they had “de-registered me”. So, I have 4 weeks.

Thinking ahead I contacted my local pharmacy here in NI and asked for advice. They suggested I contact my UK GP Surgeries Prescriptions Team and ask them to post me my “script” (I’m new to terminology) and I could bring it in and they would dispense the metformin when I needed it in 3 weeks.

I called the prescriptions team at the UK pharmacy this afternoon and after a bit of a wait they advised me they could not do this for “security reasons”, they suggested I go back to the GP here and ask for local solutions. I will call in with the pharmacy tomorrow after calling the BSO for more advice. However, it appears I am now the man in the middle and I don’t know who should be helping me.

Hopefully I will get registered here before my meds run out but if not, it looks like the only way would be for me to fly back to the UK and stay overnight in hotel and then collect the meds from normal pharmacy. This sounds crazy, am I overlooking something?

Can anyone advise on this or I should I consider contacting PALs for some advice?

 

[rebrascora]

Sorry to hear you are having such a run around with transferring GPs across to NI. My suggestion would be to not worry too much about running out of Metformin for a short while. Your dietary changes and weight loss have likely done more to lower your levels than the Metformin will have done. Rather than spend your money on a flight back to the UK to get a box of Metformin I would spend the money on a BG meter an test strips if you don't have one already and monitor your levels so that you can see if you start to rise a bit and maybe adjust your diet a bit more until you get registered over there.
Are you still on the Dapagliflozin as you make no mention of needing to obtain that?

 

[Alan44]

Hi @Godber70 and welcome to the forum.

I can't answer your question as it quite specific, but hopefully someone on the forum may have some answers for you which may help.

It's good and credit to you for the weight loss as that will stand you in good stead for your annual review.
Can you remember what you HbA1c level was when you were diagnosed ?

Alan 😉

 

[Godber70]

Hi rebrascora,

Thanks for your reply.

Yes, I have considered my levels may have been lowered (its just I don't feel lucky!). When I spoke to my Diabetes Nurse in March she advised me the levels were within range. She said however she could not put me in remission at that stage but would see me again in December. I never thought to ask her what needed to be done for remission but I suspect I needed to keep my weight and diet under control for more than 6 months.

I did also ask about a BG monitor but she advised as long as I carried on I would not need it. My mum suggested I get one anyway so I certainly will look into it. Also they have Pharmacy First here in NI and I may be able to get a Blood Test just to see where I am with my levels without joining the GP. I will check tomorrow.

Yes, sorry I am still on the dapagliflozen.

 

[Godber70]

Hi @Godber70 and welcome to the forum.

I can't answer your question as it quite specific, but hopefully someone on the forum may have some answers for you which may help.

It's good and credit to you for the weight loss as that will stand you in good stead for your annual review.
Can you remember what you HbA1c level was when you were diagnosed ?

Alan 😉

Hi Alan,

Thanks for the reply. I can't remember what the HbA1c level was but it was very high, 80 something. I was more glucose than man.

Thanks also for the kind words about my weight loss, I'm lucky as there is no food I don't like, so more healthy eating has been ok.

 

[everydayupsanddowns]

Welcome to the forum @Godber70 (I’m thinking of Ronnie Barker in Porridge now!)

Sorry to hear about the hassle you’ve had switching surgeries and getting prescriptions sorted. It must be such a worry for you!

Hope things get sorted really soon. Unfortunately the emergency workarounds (like getting emergency prescriptions of a couple of days’ supply etc) don’t seem to factor-in the extent of delays and backlogs that the system is currently experiencing.

 

[Leadinglights]

It would be useful to get a monitor and they can be bought on line fairly cheaply, GlucoNavii, TEE2 and Contour Blue are ones with the cheaper strips and that would be a better investment than paying for an HbA1C test as it will be an ongoing tool for giving you control over your condition.
Depending on your dose of metformin then you could reduce that medication by a bit to spin out the tablets as they will only be making a small difference. The dapagliflozin will be helping the body excrete excess glucose via urine but if you have enough of those that will hopefully be able to keep things on an even keel but if you have the monitor then you will be able to see how high your level is. Glucose is not usually excreted until levels from a finger prick test is above 10mmol/l.
Obviously the sooner you get the situation resolved the better. One of those unforeseen consequences we are all plagued with.

 

[Godber70]

Welcome to the forum @Godber70 (I’m thinking of Ronnie Barker in Porridge now!)

Sorry to hear about the hassle you’ve had switching surgeries and getting prescriptions sorted. It must be such a worry for you!

Hope things get sorted really soon. Unfortunately the emergency workarounds (like getting emergency prescriptions of a couple of days’ supply etc) don’t seem to factor-in the extent of delays and backlogs that the system is currently experiencing.

Thanks the reply.

Indeed I was and am very worried. On Tuesday I did visit the nearest Diabetes UK Peer Support Group. They could not help practically with the issues but it was nice to talk to some people and meet other Diabetics. I would urge anybody feeling a bit anxious to give it a try.

 

[Godber70]

It would be useful to get a monitor and they can be bought on line fairly cheaply, GlucoNavii, TEE2 and Contour Blue are ones with the cheaper strips and that would be a better investment than paying for an HbA1C test as it will be an ongoing tool for giving you control over your condition.
Depending on your dose of metformin then you could reduce that medication by a bit to spin out the tablets as they will only be making a small difference. The dapagliflozin will be helping the body excrete excess glucose via urine but if you have enough of those that will hopefully be able to keep things on an even keel but if you have the monitor then you will be able to see how high your level is. Glucose is not usually excreted until levels from a finger prick test is above 10mmol/l.
Obviously the sooner you get the situation resolved the better. One of those unforeseen consequences we are all plagued with.

Thanks for the pointers. I see Amazon stock all the monitors you've listed. I'll have more of a look later in the weekend.