Run out of insulin, can my friend "borrow" from my wife?

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walker_up

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Relationship to Diabetes
Carer/Partner
A friend came to stay over the weekend, but is hanging around a bit longer than planned and looks like he'll run short of insulin before he heads back home. The pharmacy is a bit of a PITA to get to, so he's said it'll be fine because he can just borrow some of my wife's prescription.
Sorry if this seems a daft question, but I always thought that medicines that are prescribed can't or shouldn't be shared between people, even if both have 100% definitely been prescribed identical repeat medication? I'm a bit paranoid about this sort of thing, but no-one has ever mentioned sharing / borrowing insulin before. Am I wrong to be holding firm and insisting he calls 111 etc to get some supplies in for himself?
 
Welcome to the forum @walker_up. Definitely stand your ground and insist on 111. There are so many different types of insulins and even if it's the exact same one, it is your wife's batch, including her needles. It's not ideal to share her prescription, not just for safety reasons, but also because it's her supply. 111 can help: https://111.nhs.uk/emergency-prescription
 
walker_up said:
A friend came to stay over the weekend, but is hanging around a bit longer than planned and looks like he'll run short of insulin before he heads back home. The pharmacy is a bit of a PITA to get to, so he's said it'll be fine because he can just borrow some of my wife's prescription.
Sorry if this seems a daft question, but I always thought that medicines that are prescribed can't or shouldn't be shared between people, even if both have 100% definitely been prescribed identical repeat medication? I'm a bit paranoid about this sort of thing, but no-one has ever mentioned sharing / borrowing insulin before. Am I wrong to be holding firm and insisting he calls 111 etc to get some supplies in for himself?
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The friend should have catered for their own insulin requirements. (Made sure they had enough.) Insulin is “personal.” Regardless of whether it’s the same type.
 
I think it rather depends on the circumstances. I have shared insulin with a friend from this forum when we met up for a coffee and had the opportunity of a cream scone. It was a lovely day and a rare treat for me and it was a very special occasion and I have really fond memories of that day and in some respects sharing my insulin was part of the bonding process. The other person had come out without insulin as hadn't planned on eating. We could have both foregone the scone and just had the coffee but life is for living.... I gave my friend the option to use some of my insulin which was slightly different to her insulin (Fiasp instead of NovoRapid) and it was her decision as to whether to take up my offer. I of course had a spare needle for her to use.
I do think that in your case it is rather presumptuous of your friend to assume he can just borrow from your wife particularly over several days or meals when he has failed to plan sufficiently for his trip.
The official line is that prescription only meds are for the sole use of that person and supplying them to anyone else is technically supplying a controlled drug, so you are well within your rights to refuse. How does your wife feel about it? It sounds like you might have a right run around getting him extra supplies, but technically that is the right thing to do.
 
Agree 100% the friend should have planned and always carry spare just incase, it just plain stupid not to.

But i can't believe that Insulin of the same type is purposely different from batch to batch or that a certain batch number is tailored to the recipient.
Surely batch numbers are only for quality control,

Therefore i would share my insulin if i could or use someone else's if they had enough (different needles obviously)

To me;
Novorapid = Novorapid
Lantus = Lantus
Fiasp = Fiasp
and so on, regardless of batch numbers.
 
Yes, batch (numbers) are for quality control purposes.
When I mentioned 'batch' above, I meant it in the sense of @walker_up's wife's prescription (the amount that's allocated for her to use until she needs to request a new prescription).
 
Anna DUK said:
Yes, batch (numbers) are for quality control purposes.
When I mentioned 'batch' above, I meant it in the sense of @walker_up's wife's prescription (the amount that's allocated for her to use until she needs to request a new prescription).
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Also important to consider the strength of the insulin. ie make sure they are both u100 which is the standard but some insulins also come in u300 which is 3x stronger, so really important that if you decide to share it is the same strength and exactly the same insulin. ie. NovoMix and NovoRapid are very different. Humulin i and Humulin S and Humalog are all very different, but easy to assume they are the same.
 
Also consider if your friend is male then he may need larger doses than your wife, which over several days or meals, may leave your wife short and then she may be left trying to battle to get more insulin after he has gone as her monthly "allowance" has been used up. Doses can be very significantly different for different people. So if your wife is Type 1 she might just need tiny doses like just 5u or less whereas your friend may if he is Type 2 may need ten or more times that for each meal, which might mean your wife's supply is depleted much quicker that she might expect.
 
rebrascora said:
I think it rather depends on the circumstances. I have shared insulin with a friend from this forum when we met up for a coffee and had the opportunity of a cream scone. It was a lovely day and a rare treat for me and it was a very special occasion and I have really fond memories of that day and in some respects sharing my insulin was part of the bonding process. The other person had come out without insulin as hadn't planned on eating. We could have both foregone the scone and just had the coffee but life is for living.... I gave my friend the option to use some of my insulin which was slightly different to her insulin (Fiasp instead of NovoRapid) and it was her decision as to whether to take up my offer. I of course had a spare needle for her to use.
I do think that in your case it is rather presumptuous of your friend to assume he can just borrow from your wife particularly over several days or meals when he has failed to plan sufficiently for his trip.
The official line is that prescription only meds are for the sole use of that person and supplying them to anyone else is technically supplying a controlled drug, so you are well within your rights to refuse. How does your wife feel about it? It sounds like you might have a right run around getting him extra supplies, but technically that is the right thing to do.
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Everyone’s heard of Blood Brothers but we’re Blood Sisters. I’m still here to tell the tale! And it was a lovely scone. Xx
 
If same insulin and your wife has a spare pen? Then your friend could return a NEW pen on his arrival back home maybe? Depending on distance that is. Safe this way
 
Glad the insulin was sorted via 111.

One additional thing to mention is that your wife's GP was funded for her insulin. If she was to give it to someone else and needed to order more for herself, then there is an accountancy misalignment (or worse). This may not be a significant amount for a single insulin pen but something to consider.
I think about this with my Libre. My GP funds me to have Libre 2. Unusually, they have never restricted the number of sensors I can order. If I gave half of them to a friend with type 2 (who, sadly, is not entitled to Libre on the NHS) and ordered twice as many, this could be perceived as fraud.
I guess the same is technically true when I occasionally test my partner's BG with a test strip every other year but I put this down to "wastage".
 
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