Tens of thousands of people in England with type 1 diabetes will be offered life-changing glucose monitors on the NHS, it has been revealed.
The news comes months after HuffPost UK reported on a “postcode lottery” of access when Prime Minister Theresa May was photographed wearing one of the monitors. In the Westminster NHS trust, where 10 Downing Street is situated, the device is available for free. May’s home village of Sonning sits within an NHS Trust where it is also freely available.
But other patients have been parting with as much as £90 a month for the device because they were unable to receive it on the NHS in their area.
To coincide with World Diabetes Day (14 November), NHS England said it will ensure the device, which is the size of a £2 coin and sits on the arm, is available on prescription for all patients who qualify for it in line with clinical guidelines.
The device is a wearable sensor - called Freestyle Libre - that monitors blood sugar levels, letting the wearer know when they need to inject insulin while also removing the need for continuous finger prick tests.
Only last week, a British Medical Journal (BMJ) study revealed just 2 per cent of patients in England with type 1 diabetes were getting the patches on GP prescription, a much smaller proportion than the 11 per cent in Scotland, 16 per cent in Wales, and 35 per cent in Northern Ireland.
Now, NHS England’s chief executive Simon Stevens has announced action to end this variation in access. From April 2019, patients will be able to receive the monitor on prescription from their local GP or diabetes team, helping them to better manage their blood sugar levels.
“Increasingly the NHS is going to be offering patients this sort of technology to help them more easily manage their own long-term health problems,” Stevens said. “Supporting people with modern tools to manage conditions such as type 1 diabetes is about to become much more widespread. Innovations such as these also free up time and resources for the NHS as a whole.”
Chris Askew, chief executive of Diabetes UK, called the announcement a “huge step forward” and said it will be welcome news to the many thousands of people with type 1 diabetes. “Once in place, these measures should mean an end to the variation in availability and the postcode lottery that have dogged access to this life-changing technology,” he said.