For UK Type 2s: A Petition to Make Test Strips Available to People With Type 2

This is a brief but important post. I know I have some readers in the UK.

For those not aware of it, test strips are severely restricted for type 2s in many NHS districts. The terrible paper by Farmer et al back in 2007 is often used to support this. I comment on a later paper citing that one here: Is Testing Worthwhile? 

This excerpt from a recent speech by the head of the NHS suggests there may be a brief opportunity to get this changed. 

After the expected introductory words this appears:

"I went to see my GP, they did all the stuff, they said, yes, you've got diabetes. It's quite a difficult thing, I think, particularly for someone, a healthcare professional, someone who has worked in the NHS, to kind of reflect on that and say, right, I have an illness now, a condition which could involve me losing my limbs, my kidneys packing in, having a heart attack and probably dying of a stroke."

  If you read it you'll see why I left out the next sentence. Then he says:

"one of the things they gave me was a monitoring machine, so I take my blood glucose levels four times a day and I have a little chart that I put them on. Now I'm not a stereotype here, but give me a chart and a target and a trajectory and I'm absolutely -- I'm absolutely with you. They could have designed -- they could have absolutely designed that interaction for me and I have been absolutely at it since then."

A friend of mine who runs a UK forum has started a petition to Sir David. I invite UK readers to read it; if you agree, please sign it.  

Click here: David Nicholson, Chief Executive of NHS England: Make blood glucose test strips available to people with T2 diabetes 

There is a short window of opportunity. He retires from the post in a few months.

Cheers, Alan
Everything in Moderation - Except Laughter. 
There is nothing I could eat I like more than my eyes.