Pump won't be replaced when warranty ends

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AJLang

AJLang

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Relationship to Diabetes
Type 1
I saw something on Facebook and checked with my DSN. Pumps at my hospital will not be replaced when the warranty expires, they will only be replaced when the pump is no longer working. They do have pumps that can be borrowed but the clinic closes at 5pm Fridays and there is no one to contact until Mondays. I. am not so worried at moment because I have over a year left on my current warranty but it does concern me because if I am reliant on six hour extended bolus for evenining meals plus a big basal boost in the early hours.
 
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Gosh AJ that's rubbish. Surely out-of-warranty medical equipment just has to be replaced? What a worrying situation :(
 
What I'd do is, as soon as the warranty expired, start expressing concern about your pump to the DSN - eg, buttons sticking, screen gone cloudy, whatever you feel comfortable stretching the truth about. That should hopefully get you a new pump before it actually breaks. And possibly even leave you with your old one as back up.
Don't know if that would work, but its what I'd try.
(incidentally, my pump is now well out of warranty, about 5 1/2 years. I'm waiting on getting an insight, but they are slow in coming through, I think!)
 
Thanks Redkite and Annette. I like your suggestion Annette but I think that my DSN would only refer me to Roche if I said that I had problems. I think they struggle with the pump care...I was meant to have a pump appointment with nurse last November but asked for it to be changed because I was seeing a neurologist the same day but it never got rebooked. When I had the last consultant pump appointment she thought that I shouldn't have any concerns unless my average BGS is above 8 despite having complications. It's quite frustrating.
 
That is the situation at my hospital too. I think it's quite common. Perhaps you could get them to make an exception for you Amanda because of your gastroparesis?
 
Hi Mike I will definitely give it a try, thanks for suggesting that. Originally they wouldn't give me a pump because of the gastroparesis - it was only on the basis of how many hypos I was having - although they were caused by the gastroparesis! But I will definitely discuss it with them at the next consultant appointment and see what they suggest. Sorry to hear that it is happening at your hospital as well.
 
I think it's about making good use of their money really. There's nothing to suggest that a pump is just going to konk out on Expiry+1 day so I think my hospital do not encourage people to replace immediately (and thereby can support a few more people on pumps because all of those 'extra' weeks and months add up to years of pump use over a whole hospital's worth of people).

They have said that I can ask for a new one 'whenever I like' after warranty expires, but that it just isn't an automatic replacement. My current Veo is a warranty replacement (old one developed a slight crack in the casing), so in a way it is quite a new one and only a year or two old.

Of course the snag is that if anything disastrous *DID* go wrong after warranty has expired then Medtronic would not be available to help out... But fingers crossed nothing like that has happened so far - and I'll just make sure I have MDI replacement options to hand 🙂
 
Hmmm I've heard similar (tho' my DSN keeps reminding me to get the ball rolling for my replacement 6 months ahead of warranty expiring so they are pretty good ...but ultimately isn't it the CCG that foots the bill? & my CCG is now different to where my hospital is located).

What I'm wondering is - don't Roche pumps expire on/soon after their warranty expiration date? Like a built-in countdown to stop functioning? And how does this work for Omnipods where the actual hardware (pods) isn't going to expire ever ( if your handset failed after expiry at least that would be cheaper/easier for you to get replaced? I mean - personally funded if necessary whilst waiting for the new contract to be set up via your hospital?)

I know from US message boards that a lot of (most?) insurance co.s there only seem to fund new pumps every 5 years..
 
Hmmm I've heard similar (tho' my DSN keeps reminding me to get the ball rolling for my replacement 6 months ahead of warranty expiring so they are pretty good ...but ultimately isn't it the CCG that foots the bill? & my CCG is now different to where my hospital is located).
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Yes the CCG foots the bill. What happens is the hospital sends the bill to the CCG which your GP is under.
 
ingrid said:
What I'm wondering is - don't Roche pumps expire on/soon after their warranty expiration date? Like a built-in countdown to stop functioning?
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From what I can gather from long-term UK users I know, that function is not activated in UK versions of Roche pumps. I believe UK pumps will continue to work after expiry (but it would be good to check with your hospital if that's what you use I guess!)
 
everydayupsanddowns said:
From what I can gather from long-term UK users I know, that function is not activated in UK versions of Roche pumps. I believe UK pumps will continue to work after expiry (but it would be good to check with your hospital if that's what you use I guess!)
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This is correct. At warranty expiration, you get an alarm/message on the pump telling you the warranty has expired and to contact your HCP. You ok the alarm, and everything just carries on as normal. (5.5 years into a Roche pump and going strong!)
 
Thanks Annette! Really useful to have some 'hands on' experience 🙂
 
Pumper_Sue said:
Yes the CCG foots the bill. What happens is the hospital sends the bill to the CCG which your GP is under.
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Yes, that's what I thought, so it's not ultimately the hospital that foots the bill, it's a CCG which may or may not be the one the hospital is under/within. In which case, the hospital is not itself making savings by stretching pump use beyond their warranties. When I attended the last pump education days earlier this year at my hosp, a very large minority, like about a third, of us had moved out of the borough but were still attending our wonderful hospital (well, wonderful pump/diabetes clinics, I can't comment on the other depts.!!). All very complex this NHS funding!

Thanks both for info about Roche pumps not turning into pumpkins at midnight after exactly 4 years. Glad to hear that.
 
Roche pumps do have some sort of timer on them that will stop them working when it gets to the end, but it's nothing to do with the warranty and in most cases it isn't activated. In the manual it says it is used if the pump is on loan. Presumably to make sure you give it back after the loan period - I wonder if anyone has ever had it activated though, that would surely be slightly dangerous if it suddenly stopped working, even of it did alarm to tell you 😱

Nice to know the end of warranty won't stop it though, we've got about a year left on ours!
 
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