Jim Shannon – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department of Health

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Jim Shannon on 2016-07-18.

To ask the Secretary of State for Health, what plans his Department has to make personal devices for instant monitoring of insulin levels available to people with diabetes on the NHS.

Nicola Blackwood

We are not aware of any clinical utility associated with the instant monitoring of insulin levels. However, continuous glucose monitoring devices can measure glucose levels 24 hours a day and it is for National Health Service commissioners to decide whether to make these available to their local populations.

In August 2015, National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE) published guidelines which recommend that such devices should not be made routinely available to people with Type 1 diabetes unless they are willing to commit to using them at least 70% of the time and to calibrate them as needed (as well as meeting certain other criteria).

NICE has found that, for some people, continuous glucose monitoring can have clinical benefit but generally it is not more effective than current methods of self-monitoring.