Dear Mr Nicholson

In a recent speech you said “And what I was determined to do right from then was to take control myself of my own health and healthcare and I don't know – I don't want to bore you to death with my ill health, but one of the hings they gave me was a monitoring machine, so I take my blood glucose levels four times a day and I have a little chart that I put them on. Now I'm not a stereotype here, but give me a chart and a target and a trajectory and I'm absolutely -- I'm absolutely with you. They could have designed -- they could have absolutely designed that interaction for me and I have been absolutely at it since then.”

We are pleased that you have taken ownership of your diabetes and have the wherewithal to do so i.e. test strips. However, it would appear that you are unaware that many many people with Type 2 diabetes who are just as motivated as yourself are routinely and flatly denied prescriptions for test strips by their Doctors, who apparently think that a 3 monthly, 6 monthly, or even in some cases yearly, Hba1c is sufficient to manage their disease. They are unable to test their blood sugars in order to adjust their diet to control the disease and are denied the opportunity to be a full partner in their own care, in direct contradiction to the National Framework for Diabetes. If those motivated individuals were given the test strips it would enable them to adjust their diet and exercise regimes to maximise their control and subsequently minimise any future complications that would cost the NHS further down the road. A prescription for strips and a printed out sheet with “Jennifer’s Advice” http://www.diabetes-support.org.uk/info/?page_id=136 would go a long way to save the NHS money in the longer term.

We are therefore petitioning you to use what influence you have whilst you remain in post to change this situation and make test strips available to those people with Type 2 Diabetes who are motivated to use them to good effect.