NHS England announces major FreeStyle Libre pledge

By Editor
14th November 2018
Medical devices, NHS England

The FreeStyle Libre will be prescribed to everyone with type 1 diabetes who qualifies for the technology from April 2019, NHS England has announced.

The game-changing flash monitoring device became available on the NHS from November last year subject to local health decision, but only two out of three NHS Clinical Commissioning Groups (CGGs) offer the technology, leaving people in some parts of the country unable to access the system unless they pay for it themselves.

However, to mark World Diabetes Day, Simon Stevens, Chief Executive of NHS England, has the health service will ensure the device, which is the size of a £2 coin and sits on the arm, is available on prescription for all people who qualify for it in line with NHS clinical guidelines.

He said the device will be funded for people with type 1 diabetes from 1 April 2019, from next year’s funding growth for local health groups which will allow access to flash monitoring throughout the country.

It is estimated that around 3-5% of patients with type 1 diabetes in England have access to Abbott’s Freestyle Libre but if clinical commissioning groups (CCGs) were following the guidance correctly, this figure could eventually rise to at least 20-25%, NHS England said. Currently, 144 of 195 clinical commissioning groups have signed up, and today’s announcement mean thousands of patients still missing out will now get access.

It comes as the NHS seeks to harness the power of digital technology to improve treatment and care in the long term plan, handing patients with conditions such as type 1 diabetes the knowledge and tools to manage it themselves.

Simon Stevens said: “Increasingly the NHS is going to be offering patients this sort of technology to help them more easily manage their own long term health problem. In the NHS of the future, for many conditions you’re going to get NHS support direct from your smartphone or wearable device rather than having to trek to regular hospital outpatient appointments. Supporting people with modern tools to manage conditions such as type 1 diabetes is about to become much more widespread. Innovations such as these also free up time and resources for the NHS as a whole.”

The wearable sensor does away with the need for inconvenient and sometimes painful finger prick blood tests by relaying glucose levels to a smart phone or e-reader.

The pioneering technology should ultimately help people with type 1 diabetes achieve better health outcomes and benefits for patients include:

  • Easily noticing when sugar levels are starting to rise or drop, so action can be taken earlier
  • Giving patients more confidence in managing their own conditionNot having to do as many finger-prick checks

Dr Partha Kar, Associate National Clinical Director for Diabetes at NHS England said: “This is an exciting and welcome step forward as the aim is to have uniform prescribing policy across the NHS, irrespective of where someone with type 1 diabetes lives. This will be based on previous national guidance issued- with the provision of updating it as further evidence accrues.”

Simon Stevens added: “As the NHS prepares to put digital health and technology at the heart of our long term plan for the future, NHS England is taking important action so that regardless of where you live, if you’re a patient with Type 1 diabetes you can reap the benefits of this life improving technology.”

Chris Askew, Chief Executive of Diabetes UK said: “Today’s announcement is a huge step forward, and will be welcome news to the many thousands of people with Type 1 diabetes whose lives will now be changed for the better by access to Flash Glucose Monitoring. Once in place, these measures should mean an end to the variation in availability and the postcode lottery that have dogged access to this life-changing technology.

“This decision demonstrates that the NHS is seizing the opportunities presented by new technology, but also that it has listened to the voices of many thousands of people living with and affected by diabetes across the UK. Everyone who has called for fair and equitable access to this technology – through both funding and eligibility criteria – should feel rightly proud that they been heard today.

“The diabetes crisis is a fight that must be fought on many fronts, and Diabetes UK will continue to champion access to new and established technology – and gold standard care – wherever variation and inaccessibility exist.”

Comments (8)

  1. Sachy Pate says:

    I have been refused by my GP too but I love the device so much I will continue to buy it. I was paying £58 until I found a pharmacy online called Hive Pharmacy where I buy it for £49. They are really good actually with fast delivery. Good luck everyone trying to get this on the NHS! 🙂

  2. Mazu Bee says:

    Kings College Hospital (CCG (Southwark) do not prescribe it and no idea when it will start). Specialist from Kings wrote to my GP (Wandsworth CCG) to tell them I qualify for Libre but they won’t write me a prescription because my hospital did not write one first. This policy is crazy and a lot more work needs to be done by Diabetes UK so that CCG’s listen to NICE guidelines and just let us have it on prescription. Wrote to both CCG’s but they are unwilling to respond to emails. I am self funding at this time. I know that if you self find for 6 months then you qualify for it on prescription if your specialist says that you qualify for prescriptions in the first place. My blood sugar control is so much better using the Libre.

  3. Simon Roberts says:

    I have been a type 1 diabetic for 33 years. The last 18 months I have been paying for the Freestyle Libre myself and what a breath of fresh air it is compared to finger pricking, with so much information available. My excitment rose when the NHS made this announcement and the prospect of the sensors on prescription was a possibility. My CCG in Northamptonshire has now declined me 3 times saying I don’t meet the criteria. According to the NHS website https://www.nhs.uk/conditions/type-1-diabetes/flash-monitoring-freestyle-libre/ THE CRITERIA IS…taking your blood sugar 8 times a day (I could do that again for a while if it got me free sensors!!) and then comes the kicker if you want to maintain your driving license “having disabling hypos”. The DVLA is not going to let you keep driving if your doctor puts this in your medical records. So until the NHS sees sense & the value of preventative blood sugar control for type 1 diabetics who need to drive, £48.29 (without VAT) every 2 weeks continues….

  4. Tim Brown says:

    How about us type 2s who are on intensive insulin therapy, with all the multiple finger pricking. I have to follow basal/bolus carb counting with the added complication that our bodies still make insulin in varying amounts and insulin resistance also varies with activity. I have self funded the libre and found it extremely helpful to learn what was going on, however I cannot afford to buy the sensors very often.
    I feel like a second class diabetic especially with all the blame rhetoric these days.

  5. Lorraine Cope says:

    The NICE guidelines only include a small percentage of us using a pump. It seems still unfair as it suggested lots more of us can benefit.

  6. Melanie Houghton says:

    As a type 1 since 1999, doing 10-25 blood tests a day I can’t tell you how overjoyed I am.
    My fingers are so scarred I have to prick on average 5-10 times just to get blood out, this will mean increased control of my sugars and will give my fingers a chance to heal a little.
    I’m so pleased, I really am.

  7. Amy Kent says:

    Have they announced what the said “criteria” will be?

  8. Patrick Nozarick says:

    What about those of us who have T2 with severe complications and have to test BG up to 6 times a day??