I was watching television the other day...

Not surprising really that as I've been out of a job for a little while now. Thankfully that's soon to come to an end.
Channel Four is a channel that is well known for misrepresenting persons and generally talking out of it's arse. What I speak of is yet another example of this, in relation to diabetes. Like their series that goes by the name of The Hospital. That's another subject all together. However, news team gets hold of a medical report and the words "NHS", "funding", "diabetes", "millions" and "wasted" come into the equation I generally assume that they are skewing things and not looking at the bigger picture. This is one such as case.
Channel Four has gotten hold of a report generated by a doctor (the doctor in question, after writing this, no longer merits the title of Doctor as they have disgraced their profession and become a slave to the accountants) claims that the NHS is spending far more than is necessary on the modern insulins on which many depend. It also claims that they are far less effective than the older Human insulins.
Now it is true that the modern insulins (analogues such as Novorapid, Humalog and Apidra; then the long acting insulins such as Levemir and Lantus) do cost more than the older Human insulins. However, it is not as true that they are less effective than the older ones. Far from it. They are effective if they are well used and if patients are taught essential skills such as Carbohydrate Counting. The older human insulins do not need as much skill to use. This smacks of bimodal insulins that I first started on in nineteen ninety six when I was diagnosed. The issue is that the NHS furnishes diabetics such as myself with lovely insulins that are the cutting edge in their field yet it does not educate us in their use. If there is education in carbohydrate counting that is structured (such as DAFNE and SADIE) or determined diabetics who learn the skills of their own accord. Some are given a scant education and generally left to get on with it. This was the approach first taken with me. However, at the age of seventeen I was something of a rather precocious young man with little understanding of what I was doing in relation to my diabetes nor any real will to learn new skills. After all I had been doing much the same thing without any ill effects (or so I perceived it then) for many years. The first approach at learning to carb count did not work in my case. I simply let it slide and conveniently forget about it until it was mentioned at any appointment and then fobbed off my team with excuses or told them that I didn't want to and just let it go. Then I was offered a place on a course of a similar nature to DAFNE. I took it. I haven't looked back since. What I like to envisage is a system in which all diabetics are taught to carb count as soon as is possible. Perhaps the system should be modelled on the Finnish one where all diabetics are hospitalised for a week upon diagnosis to learn the skills of carb counting.
Now back to the point, the NHS could save much money by putting all type ones onto human insulins, mixes and the like. However, these would only save on drugs costs. The cost for complications, emergency hospital admissions would be much higher than they are. The fact is that bimodal insulins and the older insulins don't really work as well and are simply out dated. The treatments available with them just aren't as good as what's available with the modern insulins. They do not offer as tight control or as good quality of life. Ultimately a few pounds saved by using older insulins and older means of control would eventually have to be spent on treating complications. That and much more money than that saved on cheaper and less effective medicines.
What got to me even more is that the report once more began to focus on type two as opposed to type one. It gets me that the small minority of type ones from the many thousands of diabetics within the country are all tarred with the same brush. Again that's another issue. What I really want to see is a report that shows all the type ones like myself who make damn good use of their insulins and care for themselves. Not the ones that don't care and allow themselves to be hospitalised or do not seek to improve their own care. Enough on this now. I'm going to write a letter to someone.