We don’t do pumps

By | 11 March, 2011

This bewildering cry is still heard on occasion in the antiquated backwaters of diabetes care. If you’re dealing with such out-dated, antediluvian attitudes to providing pumps, a little bit of help is at hand. (Don’t get too excited, no one won the lottery and agreed to give everyone a free pump, but it’s a little step in the right direction. )

The diabetes big guns – JDRF, Diabetes UK  and Input have got together with the NHS Technology Adoption Centre to create a guide to help dinosaurs who currently don’t provide pump therapy in their clinics yet have desperate diabetics who meet the NICE criteria and are crying out for a pump.

If your clinic already offers a pump service, but you can’t personally get one, this won’t help. But if your clinic doesn’t offer a pump service at all, this is aimed at getting them moving in the right direction.

The idea is that you can share the guide with your favourite neanderthal clinician and give them a gentle shove towards the age of enlightenment. There’s actually quite a bit of good stuff in there that clinicians and PCTs will find useful around business cases and costing models to get funding to set up a pump service, guidance on how to actually run a decent pump service etc.

As some people may understandably find it slightly difficult to dropkick their reluctant healthcare team into this brave new world, there’s even a nice little letter you can download  and give to your clinician, signed by the big guns, explaining the guide and why they should be interested. A casual, “Hello Dr, I saw this and thought of you” from your side would probably suffice.

The full guide is available here.

7 thoughts on “We don’t do pumps

  1. Tim

    This is great stuff – the downloadable letter is just what us patients needs to give a bit of umph to our pitiful cries! Yay!

    Reply
  2. jasonf

    Hi Alison, yes this is good stuff! I know that pumps do not suit everyone, but I think everyone deserves an opportunity to make that decision for themselves. From personal experience, changing to a pump after 21 years of MDI, has made a huge difference to my A1C and I love it the freedom and better health because of it 🙂

    Reply
  3. Daniel

    What I do not understand is why pumps are only available on the NHS for T1’s!!!

    Im a T2, well possibly anyway my docs are still trying to work that one out as i have traits of both, but because I have not got the classification of a T1 there is no hope in hell of me having a pump through the NHS.

    Since being diagnosed a year ago I have been on MDI and now I have purchased my own pump privately which is not fair, pumps should be available for all those who use insulin. Only allowing T1’s to have one is surely discriminating against T2’s?

    Reply
  4. Alison Post author

    @dbolding Couldn’t agree more. I think if you’re on insulin, a diagnosis of T2 puts you at a real disadvantage.

    Reply
  5. Patti Evans

    Another one here with a wonky diagnosis. 8 years down the line (on insulin only from the beginning) the GP’s nurse has finally agreed to refer me to an Endo to see if we can get a proper diagnosis – bit late if you ask me! As I said to her, “no earthly chance of getting a pump in Cornwall, but if we move I don’t want to be denied because of a “guessed” diagnosis”.

    Reply

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