Libre to be available on the NHS.....

Maybelline10 said:
If the NHS fund these for children then I am happy to pay for mine!
Diabetic for 47 years and have beenon the libre for 2 week trial now and it is brilliant and am going to cut out something to fund it.
For all these years I have put up with injections and testing so the new Libre is the best thing to have happened to me since slice bread was invented!!!
It will be worth it but of course if the NHS fund it for me I will be truly and utterly grateful for giving me a new start to go forward.
I have got this far and have a good record so it can only make it better for me, but of course I know it will be a postcode lottery.

Hi,
Not wishing to be negative but it could be a while before you can actually get Libre sensors on the NHS. I asked my consultant at Guy's about it at my pump appointment. She said that although it was going on to the NHS price lists in November there is still a lot of discussion going on to identify who should be eligible for the sensors and what the criteria should be. There is a LOT of work going on in the NHS about this but its complicated and given the price Abbott want per sensor from the NHS it can't be available for everyone. She said if they cost the same as blood test strips then they would be more than happy for everyone to get them but at the current cost the NHS just can't afford to let everyone have them. I can understand this position and am very disappointed in Abbott. Sounds like they are just chasing the money and not taking the wider view of getting more people on them giving them a long term revenue stream. I guess the reality is other companies will soon launch similar devices and if they all get approved for the NHS then the cheapest will win. It sounds to me like another post code lottery in the making.....

Type 1 for 51 years. Been using freestyle Libre on & off for 15 months, when I can afford it. When I heard the news of Libre being free on the NHS I went to my GP who said they need authority from the local health authority, where I live is the Kent & Medway. Today I found out that Kent & Medway have told them NOT to prescribe the freestyle Libre on prescription. No reason why given. So for the time being it is a no go for me, & anyone else who live in the Kent & Medway area. If , & it's a big if., this changes I will post another update.

Colin McC said:
Type 1 for 51 years. Been using freestyle Libre on & off for 15 months, when I can afford it. When I heard the news of Libre being free on the NHS I went to my GP who said they need authority from the local health authority, where I live is the Kent & Medway. Today I found out that Kent & Medway have told them NOT to prescribe the freestyle Libre on prescription. No reason why given. So for the time being it is a no go for me, & anyone else who live in the Kent & Medway area. If , & it's a big if., this changes I will post another update.

I agree with novarapidboi and suspect your GP is bending the truth. I'm not sure the devices are actually on the NHS price list yet, it has not come out this month yet and even then there needs to be discussions in the NHS on this. When I recently had an issue with my GP and tried to complain to the CCG I was told they have no interface to GP's they just commission services i.e pay people like hospital consultants to provide their diabetics with appointments. Its debatable if this extends to dictating what a surgery can and cannot prescribe to patients. Hopefully things will clarify over the next few months and we will see if ANY area of the country is actually prescribing them to patients. If they are not then the whole exercise has been completely pointless as having them available and not letting anyone have them is the same as them not being available....

I was speaking to a young woman on a Facebook page and she said she got prescribed a Libre almost a year ago....

She was painting the picture that whatever she wanted she got, but with all that bravado aside....how is that even possible.....?

She is at the Royal Alexandria in Paisley, Scotland......

My local CCG will not be issuing any because they do not feel they can justify the cost. The GP I spoke to to find out if I could get it on prescription made it quite clear that it may not be the case forever, but even people who are less able to care for themselves properly compared to me will not be being issued them, so as usual, I have no chance as things currently stand. This does not surprise me at all.

Hey JayBee, that's the same reaction I received from my diabetic nurse at my GP. This seems to be the general reaction from most folks. Thinks we all have 2 chances, fat & no.

Just found out there is a government petition relating to the freestyle libre. It's got @ 7300+ so far so if you want to sign up then go to Petitions - UK Government and Parliament then Open Partitions then type in diabetic & it will show Provide free flash glucose monitoring systems to type 1 diabetics on the NHS. Then just follow the instructions. I think tis worth a go & tis only takes a few minutes out of your life to register

The website address for this petition is

https://petition.parliament.uk/petitions/204550

You'll have to copy and paste this to get to it