Life-saving sensors denied to diabetics in ‘postcode lottery’
AN NHS “postcode lottery” is denying hundreds of thousands of people with Type 1 diabetes the same life-saving device used by Prime Minister Theresa May.
The equipment, which works via a sensor attached to the skin that monitors glucose levels, has been available on prescription since last November.
But an investigation by the British Medical Journal shows that about a quarter of clinical commissioning groups in England are not recommending the device for patients some 12 months on.
In July the Daily Express revealed that the “game-changing” FreeStyle Libre device used by Mrs May was being denied to hundreds of thousands of diabetics. At the time just 9,690 sufferers across Britain were being prescribed the device, according to NHS data.
Users can access glucose readings by scanning the sensor with a portable reader or a smartphone app. But sufferers denied a prescription have to spend about £100 The FreeStyle Libre diabetes device a month on the patches. There are currently 400,000 people in the UK with Type 1 diabetes.
Mrs May recently told Parliament that it is available on the NHS. But Partha Kar, NHS England’s associate national clinical director for diabetes, estimates that only about three to five per cent of patients with Type 1 diabetes in England currently have access to the sensor on the NHS.
If CCGs were following guidance correctly, he believes the figure should be closer to 20 or 25 per cent – if not even higher.
He said some CCGs were merely paying “lip service” in offering access to the devices, and that variations in how the criteria were being applied had led to an unacceptable postcode lottery.
Consultant diabetologist Dr Emma Wilmot said some patients had considered moving to a different GP practice to meet the criteria, while others were making “huge sacrifices” to fund the device themselves.
The data was revealed in response to Freedom of Information requests to CCGs. While some clinical commissioning groups have made the devices available to patients via GPs, other CCGs say they are to be prescribed only by secondary care clinicians.
Official prescribing data collated by diabetes campaigner Nick Cahm and shared with the British Medical Journal suggests that only one in 50 patients with Type 1 diabetes in England (two per cent) is getting FreeStyle Libre on GP prescriptions, compared with 11 per cent in Scotland, 16 per cent in Wales and 35 per cent in Northern Ireland.
Mr Cahm added: “Lots of the variation doesn’t need to be there. It doesn’t seem to be logical.”