South Worcestershire, Redditch & Bromsgrove, Wyre Forest

After prompting, I received this reply:

Dear Mr Cahm

Sorry for the the delay in responding to the letters that you sent to the three Worcestershire CCGs about Freestyle Libre on 22nd March.

As you are aware National guidance published by NHS England on 7^th March 2019 outlined the requirements and clinical criteria for use of Flash Glucose Monitoring (FlashGM, specifically Freestyle Libre®); this guidance has informed arrangements agreed by Worcestershire Clinical Commissioning Groups (Redditch and Bromsgrove, South Worcestershire and Wyre Forest) for the 2019/20 financial year.

The Worcestershire CCG arrangements make provision for consideration of appropriate patients at annual diabetes review. Patients who meet the referral criteria will be referred to diabetes specialist teams in hospital. This means that patients will not be able to access FlashGM sensors immediately from their general practice on 1st April 2019.

Following referral from general practice, diabetes specialist services will assess eligibility for FlashGM in accordance with national clinical criteria. Diabetes specialist services will also be responsible for providing training, initiating use, supplying sensors and assessing eligibility for continuation. General practice will not issue any prescriptions for sensors during this initial 4 to 6 month period.

Patients who have previously self-funded use of FlashGM will be managed as outlined above.

The policies for use of FlashGM in adults and children and young people are available on the CCGs website using the following links:

http://www.southworcsccg.nhs.uk/EasySiteWeb/GatewayLink.aspx?alId=175987

http://www.southworcsccg.nhs.uk/EasySiteWeb/GatewayLink.aspx?alId=175988

We hope this clarifies the arrangements for access to Flash Glucose Monitoring in Worcestershire.

Best wishes

Medicines Commissioning Team

NHS South Worcestershire Clinical Commissioning Group

NHS Redditch & Bromsgrove CCG and NHS Wyre Forest CCG

Update

I subsequently asked them whether they understood that this statement indicated that the sensors would be dispensed from hospitals and hence wouldn't be reimbursed. They stated this:

We are aware of the fact that reimbursement will only be for issues via FP10 and this is how Freestyle Libre will be supplied to Worcestershire patients.

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