We recently mounted a campaign in Dorset to call for an end to the postcode lottery affecting Flash Glucose Monitoring.
It played a key role in a nationwide Diabetes UK initiative pressing for this painless alternative to finger-prick testing to be made available on prescription across all areas of the country.
In October Bridport mum and business owner Kirsty Edwardes and her 13-year-old daughter Kirsty joined other supporters for our “Flash Mob” outside County Hall in Dorchester to protest at Dorset Clinical Commissioning Group’s (CCG) decision only to prescribe Flash Glucose Monitoring based on extremely limited criteria. Meanwhile, many more people with diabetes in neighbouring counties were able to access it.
Kirsty also spoke at the County’s Health Overview and Scrutiny Committee, telling her daughter’s story and urging the committee to press the CCG to make Flash available to Rosey and other people in Dorset who might benefit. Rosey has had Type 1 diabetes since she was 17 months old and has to check her blood glucose levels at least ten times a day.
Rosey previously wrote to Prime Minister Theresa May to ask for help in making Flash more widely available to young children and babies.
Just a few weeks after our Fight for Flash in Dorset, Simon Stevens, Chief Executive of NHS England, announced an end the current variation patients in some parts of the country are facing to access Flash. From April tens of thousands of people with Type 1 diabetes will be able to obtain this life-changing technology on prescription.
It seems that the actions of Kirsty and Rosey Edwardes and all our other supporters who have helped us apply pressure to the NHS have finally borne fruit.
