Last Saturday at 9.30am (which, as any normal person will realise, is far too early for a Saturday morning) I arrived at Napier University for the famed annual LDRG diabetes conference.
I was slightly the worse for wear after a work-colleague’s retirement do the night before (I’m certain one of the glasses of champagne I quaffed was off) but things got better after a few cups of vile coffee and meeting cheery folks Aileen, Mary et al from IPAG Scotland – everyone’s favourite Scottish insulin pump support group.
The day progressed with some incredibly dull PowerPoint presentations of facts and figures relating to diabetes in the Lothians, which was wrist-slashingly fascinating. But things improved with some useful workshops – I went to one about putting health records online, which was presented by a GP who’s done just that and put all his patient’s record securely on the Internet. This allows the lucky blighters within his catchment area to be able to order repeat prescriptions, get test results and book appointments and so on from the comfort of their Internet-enabled whatever. Said GP has plans to convince the Scottish Government to roll this out throughout Scotland – and it would be great if he succeeds.
This was then followed by a session of chatting to the meter and pump reps over coffee in the foyer. So you’ll all be pleased to hear (unless, of course, your one of the reps I spoke to) that I’ve got a whole new load of meters to review – first impressions are not promising, so that’s something to look forward to!
This was followed by a buffet which wasn’t actually as vile as I thought it would be and an interesting workshop with a Q&A session on insulin through which we learnt a few tit-bits. The afternoon went on with another useful workshop on insulin pump therapy, which just made me curse the NHS Gods that won’t give me a pump until hell freezes over (something which often happens in a Scottish winter. I say “hell” I really mean “Glasgow”).
Anyway, a good time was had by all and there was a lot of useful information but, as always, chatting with the rest of the pancreatically-challenged hoards was the best bit. Roll on the Shoot Up meet up at the end of the month!
Tim, hello!
Any folly on new & improved pumps? We here in the States must wait for our much misaligned FDA to approve anything worthwhile…
Good morning!
It was great meeting you on Saturday Tim 🙂
I must say I was impressed with Lothian and in the case of diabetes the East beats the West without a doubt!!! All the professionals were very nice, approachable and helpful.
I will be watching your meter reviews with interest, Marc is very taken with the Freestyle Lite, dash… after me getting 2 more Nano’s as well!
Mark, the chances of us getting new and improved pumps in Scotland are slim. The new pump tender has just been passed and appears to have a ranking order of Roche, Medtronic then Animas. The very ‘good looking’ Cell Novo looks like it may be out in the UK during 2010, but due to the lack of pump prescribing in Scotland may not be a viable business proposition for them to have it available here… which will no doubt be the same for all new pumps unless they are manufactured by one of the 3 companies named in the tender.
I think we will be happy to get any pump here, Lothian has a 2 year waiting list now which is totally unacceptable 🙁 Thank Goodness Tim is already on the list.
@MarkMansheim I tried to reply to this remotely from my BlackBerry yesterday (I was away in London) with very limited success. *shakes fist at technology*
Not much wildly exciting on new pumps – they’re just generally getting smaller and coming in more colours – nothing utterly world-shattering at the minute. But some interesting stuff on the far horizon.
@Aileen Nice to meet you too! 🙂
Lothian does appear to beat west coast (in most things 😉 ) but when compared against the rest of the UK and the rest of the world it’s pretty bleak. It just highlights how utterly mediaeval things are over in the west. Grr.
It certainly does, Grrrr!
@Aileen “Grr” pretty much sums it up!