What About CGM? Commissioning recommendations blood glucose meters November 2024

[shaunoconnor]

https://www.england.nhs.uk/wp-content/uploads/2023/04/PRN00037-v3-commissioning-recommendations-following-the-national-assessment-of-blood-glucose-and-ketone-meters.pdf

I've recently been informed that I can no longer get Freestyle blood test strips on prescription because of the above 'recommendation'.
Does anyone else see this as difficult? I usually use my blood meter for food bolus calculations & before driving. It also builds trust in the sensor reading - particularly in the first day of a new sensor.
I know that the freestyle test strips are 3x the price of the suggested replacements, but the replacement meters have no integration with the freestyle data, and no bolus calculator

 

[rebrascora]

I was never able to get the Freestyle Optium test strips prescribed in the first place so you could probably consider yourself quite lucky that you have had them for so long. I have the CareSens Dual and I dislike it a lot as it eats batteries and doesn't like the cold even in quite moderate temperatures and I find I have to put it down my bra for 5 mins if I want a reading. I bought myself some Freestyle Optium test strips because I use a reader for my Libre and thought that test strips for it would mean that I could leave my CareSens at home and was surprised and a little disconcerted that they consistently read 1-2mmols lower than my CareSens and lower than my Libre readings. Considering that Libre seems to read low for me, I decided that I wasn't confident of the results they were giving me and didn't buy more.

I believe there are bolus calculators on some of the free phone apps for logging diabetes data.... not sure if the Libre app also has a bolus calculator. Personally I have never understood the need or benefit of such a thing but that could be an oddity of my diabetes management.

I am very happy to bolus from my Libre data but usually do one or two corroboration checks in the first couple of days of a new sensor.... however I have been known not to bother. It usually becomes quite obvious when a sensor is not performing well, although it very rarely happens for me.

 

[Robin]

Sigh! Something else to have to lug round with me. At the moment I get the strips that fit my Libre sensor, which means I don’t have to remember to pack the separate meter. I hardly use any, because I find the Libre accurate enough to bolus from etc, so if I was prescribed ones that come in a big pot, not individually wrapped, I’d end up throwing most of them away as the pot had been open too long. Will see when I next order a repeat, whether anything is said…

 

[SimonP]

I wonder how they determine whether a meter meets the additional requirement of "no fixed abode"?

It's a shame they don't offer an option for data connectivity (though I guess some of those meters will by default communicate somehow), and indeed for "small device with little screen" so it's easy to take out and about.

 

[rebrascora]

@Robin's point is interesting. I have to say I have never been fastidious about things going out of date, be it food or anything else, so I simply hadn't considered that I am going well beyond the recommended period for an opened pot of test strips.
Looking back at my records, I currently order 3 pots of 50 test strips about twice a year, so in reality a pot must last me about 2 months and I could probably get away with one lasting me 4 months if I didn't have so many retests because the meter died half way through testing because I didn't put it down my bra first!! 😡 I don't feel that going beyond the recommended period particularly affects their performance, although that would be hard to prove one way or another, but I get very decent, reliable correlation between Libre scan results and finger pricks the vast majority of the time, which would suggest it doesn't pose a problem.

 

[grovesy]

I buy the Freestyle strips on Amazon, they are about £12 for 50 strips.

 

[Robin]

@Robin's point is interesting. I have to say I have never been fastidious about things going out of date, be it food or anything else, so I simply hadn't considered that I am going well beyond the recommended period for an opened pot of test strips.

I must say, when I checked some strips I’d been using the other day, they were out of date! I tend to take use by dates on food with a pinch of salt too, provided it passes the sniff test. But when they’re calculating the costs of making these changes, they can’t factor in using stuff past its use by date, because most people do chuck things out, especially if they’re calculating boluses etc from them.

 

[grovesy]

The Freestyle strips are foil wrapped.

 

[Robin]

The Freestyle strips are foil wrapped.

Yes, this is why they last me for so long without having to use them out of date. If I had a pot of another brand, as is being recommended by the NHS, and discarded them when they’d been open the recommended time, I’d be getting through masses more, which is why it’s a false economy to restrict my wrapped ones.