Reply from Medicines Optimisation
Dear Nick,
Your letter has been passed to me to answer the questions you raise regarding the prescribing of FreeStyle Libre.
Portsmouth CCG along with South Eastern Hampshire and Fareham and Gosport CCGs work together with the specialists at Portsmouth Hospitals Trust and recommend guidance around prescribing through the Area Prescribing Committee. The FreeStyle Libre guidance was approved in May last year and can be found at the link below.
As you can see from the schematic the initial 6 months is provided by the diabetes centre in Portsmouth. This results in the first 6 months of any prescribing not being included in the prescribing data for the CCG. So while FreeStyle Libre is not Red it is considered Amber for secondary care initiation.
The Portsmouth Area Formulary status can be seen at the following link.
As the national funding you refer to in your letter will likely be based on CCG prescribing it is likely that this process will be reviewed in the future so that the prescribing activity is allocated to CCGs.
Hope this helps and reassures you that we have adopted appropriate guidance.
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