Prescribing of Freestyle Libre

[Bruce Stephens]

https://openprescribing.net/measure/libre/ shows prescriptions (per 1000 patients) by CCG (and within each CCG, by GP Practice).

 

[SB2015]

At the start any prescription for our Libre had to be supported by a recommendation from a consultant, but then the GP made the decision (in reality accepting the recommendation). I wonder whether in your area @BennyG the log them all to the hospital. Strange since I thought that the funding was now devolved to the CCGs. Can you see any other Practices in your area showing the same pattern?

The criteria changed this April and there were some areas that only started prescribing them then, it also increased the numbers in many areas. The graphs are a record of the number of prescriptions per 1000 patients and clicking on any point shows which percentile the Practice lies in. I don’t know whether this takes any account of the number of patients with T1 in that Practice.

 

[Bruce Stephens]

I don’t know whether this takes any account of the number of patients with T1 in that Practice.

I presume it's just per 1000 patients registered (so we'd expect variation between surgeries based on how many T1 patients they happen to have). I also wonder whether it includes the 6 month trial period, or whether prescriptions during that period are categorised differently somehow.

 

[SB2015]

I presume it's just per 1000 patients registered (so we'd expect variation between surgeries based on how many T1 patients they happen to have). I also wonder whether it includes the 6 month trial period, or whether prescriptions during that period are categorised differently somehow.

Just shows how data is absolutely useless unless you know how it was collected.
I still remember teaching Statistics, and focusing on the importance of knowing purpose of collecting data and how it will be used.