Diabetic advocates seek HSE funding for new, cheaper, high tech glucose sensor 

A  traditional glucose meter for diabetes monitoring.

The HSE should remove an age limit to accessing potentially life-saving technology for diabetes, a Co Clare diabetes advocate has urged.

New smart devices allow diabetics to track their glucose levels in a more accurate way than the finger pin-prick method as well as creating charts of glucose levels to share with medical teams.

However, a commonly-used sensor, Freestyle Libre, which offers flash glucose monitoring is only funded through the HSE for people under-21 despite advocates arguing it is more cost-effective than other brands in use.

Grainne Flynn, a Diabetes Ireland advocacy group member, said there are three sensors available in Ireland. However, she said the age limit on this particular brand has led many in the diabetes community and even some doctors to mistakenly think older adults cannot apply for any funding.

“Choice is super important because there is no one single device that works for all people with diabetes, the more choices we have the better chance we have of finding something that works for us,” she said.

“Every person who is insulin-dependent has the right to have one of these devices. We knew when they came in, they would change how diabetes is managed.” 

There are estimated to be around 29,000 people with Type 1 diabetes in Ireland.

Reliance

Data she gathered from the HSE, in response to parliamentary questions tabled by politicians in Cork and Clare, however, shows 11,212 people relying on HSE-funded sensors.

Analysis of the data, published on her website Blood Sugar Trampoline, shows 55% of under-21s with diabetes use the Freestyle Libre sensor.

This drops to just 23% of over-21s and all had to plead “extenuating circumstances” to qualify.

The number of younger people starting to use sensors plateaued at the end of 2018 but the number of over-21s doubled each year since then.

“The company that manufactures Libre may decide to cut their losses and leave, they have saturated their under-21 market, that’s my concern,” she said.

Grainne Flynn, Diabetes Ireland, with a 2018 petition to the Dáil seeking Freestyle Libre to be made available to all people with Type 1 diabetes. Picture: Moya Nolan

Saving

“My other concern is that the Libre device costs half what the other devices costs and this is our taxpayers’ money.” The monthly cost of using the Freestyle Libre device is €120, but Ms Flynn is instead relying on a different brand Dexacom which costs the State €225 a month.

She suggested if the 3,000 over-21s who started using a sensor last year were offered funding for this more cost-effective sensor, and assuming an uptake of 55% as for the younger group currently, “the total cost of funding sensors would have been reduced by €2.4 million for that year alone.” Cork city councillor John Maher has also called on the health minister to intervene and change the funding model.

“Currently, people with Type 1 Diabetes receive a sensor through their long term illness book but this then stops at 21,” the Labour councillor said.

“The cost of a sensor works out at approximately €120 a month but the benefits it brings are incredible. I’ve been diabetic for 24 years and I’ve never felt like I’ve had so much control, and I thank the Freestyle Libre for that.” 

He said it is not clear why the sensor is approved for younger people but not for over-21s, although it is licenced for all ages in other countries.

“Management of your diabetes shouldn’t be dependent on if you can afford it not as the long term complications associated with diabetes will cost the HSE far more,” he said.

The HSE has previously told Diabetes Ireland that a ‘Health Technology Assessment ‘ is underway on the value of this sensor.