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Mid and South Essex Combined

Initial response from Basildon and Brentwood CCG (also Thurrock and Mid Essex)

FOI Request: FreeStyle Libre Glucose Monitoring Sensors
Our Reference Number: 1819416

Dear Mr Cahm,

I am writing to acknowledge receipt of your request under the Freedom of Information Act 2000 to NHS Basildon and Brentwood CCG on 13th March 2019. The information is currently being collated and a response will be sent to you no later than 20 working days. The deadline is calculated to be 12th April 2019.

If you have any queries regarding your request, please do not hesitate to contact the FOI team on this email address.

A reply from the Diabetes Clinic (15/3)

Dear Nick
Thank you for the letter. I will direct this to our team lead who will answer this when she is next in the office next week.
Hope that is ok.

and a second reply on 18/3:

Hi Nick,

Thank you for your letter. From a DSN point of view we are keen to prescribe. We are bound by our medicines management team and we are awaiting instructions of how and when we can prescribe. This to be in line with our STP.
Also to note this meds management team cover Basildon and Brentwood and Thurrock CCG. The STP we are part of also includes Castle Point and Rochford, Southend and Mid Essex.

Final Response from CCG (now with Policy Document)


We are currently implementing the National Guidance which NHSE published on March 19th 2019 and a new Value-based Commissioning Policy will be in place from 1st April 2019.   

From 1st April 2019, patients assessed by specialist teams as meeting the policy criteria will be able to access Freestyle Libre funded by the NHS, with the initial supply coming from the hospital and then prescribing by GPs once they have been authorised to prescribe by the specialists. 

The Policy document, patient agreement forms and FAQs will be available on the website from 1st April 2019.

The policy is published here: Updated Libre Policy Mid and South Essex STP

Comments

Anonymous said…
The first criteria used by the STP appears to be contrary to the national guidance in that they will only prescribe to ‘poorly controlled’ diabetics.
Is it possible to challenge them on this?
23 May 2019 at 12:26
Nick said…
Yes, this has been challenged....the East of England in general have been so confused by their own Prescription Advisory Committee that it's embarrassing. The next push will come when the April prescribing data is released, in about a month's time.
23 May 2019 at 12:29
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