This can be a query I requested a few years in the past whereas messaging forwards and backwards with a buddy about entry to CGMs in Eire and if it was attainable to get a quantity. I drafted a Parliamentary Query for my buddy to submit, pondering why not, nevertheless it couldn’t be that straightforward, may it? Sure, it may.
Final 12 months, I wrote a doc primarily based on the replies to these PQs, which indicated that in 2021 over 11,000 folks with diabetes have been utilizing HSE-funded flash and CGMs. I made a decision to proceed to replace these numbers and produce an identical however less complicated doc for 2022 and have summarised the details beneath. The complete model will be learn right here, the place one can find extra particulars.
The aim of the doc is to offer an estimate of the variety of people who find themselves utilizing HSE-funded Flash and CGMs in Eire and to immediate a dialogue round entry equality. I imagine we have to speak about how honest it’s that so many are accepted for HSE funding and why some individuals are nonetheless being made to pay.
I additionally surprise about how nicely folks with diabetes are doing. Entry to those gadgets is predicated on scientific standards, which embrace frequency of hypers and hypos in addition to HbA1c and with the variety of folks being funded for these gadgets so excessive, I ponder if we’re doing terribly when it comes to our well being. This can be a bit scary to consider.
This doc does comprise the numbers for 4 of the gadgets obtainable the Dexcom G6, Dexcom G7 and Medtronic Guardian CGMs and the Flash glucose monitor, Freestyle Libre. Nevertheless, the figures for Dexcom G7 should not included within the general whole quantity, because it was suspected that a few of these numbers can be Dexcom G6 renewals.
Earlier than you learn any additional, there have been some issues to contemplate in how correct these figures is likely to be, which incorporates not realizing the factors that the HSE used to gather the info. The second unknown is that the variety of folks with sort 1 diabetes in Eire is an estimate, as we don’t have a nationwide diabetes registry, and the proportion is calculated on this estimate. The third unknown can also be associated to the shortage of a register; we don’t know how many individuals with sort 2 diabetes are insulin-dependent, so we don’t know if the numbers are just for folks with sort 1 diabetes or in the event that they embrace folks dwelling with different varieties of diabetes.
Key factors:
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15,384 folks have been utilizing HSE-funded Flash and CGMs in Eire in 2022
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This represents 53% of the estimated T1D inhabitants in Eire, supplied by Diabetes Eire in 2022
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This quantity has elevated by 10% (3,624n) on 2021
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5,074 customers are aged Underneath 21 years
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10,310 customers are aged Over 21 years
In line with figures supplied by the HSE, there have been 15,384 folks utilizing HSE-funded Flash and CGMs in Eire on the finish of 2022. This represents an estimated 53% of the kind 1 diabetes inhabitants. Dexcom G6 is essentially the most extensively used system, and Medtronic is the least-used system, in all probability as a result of it’s principally utilized by folks on insulin pumps. The uptake of Libre has been in decline since 2019, whereas the uptake of Dexcom and Medtronic continues to extend considerably.
Distinction between manufacturers
The part appears at how many individuals are utilizing the completely different manufacturers of gadgets and focuses on the primary three and the way uptake is unfold throughout them.
Of the variety of folks utilizing HSE-Funded Flash or CGM:
Uptake between the Units Inside age teams
Underneath 21s
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43% Dexcom G6
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42% Libre
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15% Medtronic
Over 21s
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62% Dexcom G6
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22% Medtronic
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16% Libre
The variety of folks utilizing HSE-funded Flash and CGM was 2,852. This quantity has elevated to fifteen,384 by the tip of 2022. Every of the 5 years between 2018 and 2022 has seen the entire quantity enhance by an annual common of fifty%.