Insulin Pumps in Eire
In Eire, insulin pumps are offered free of charge to folks with diabetes who meet the factors, and corporations can submit an utility to the HSE’s procurement division at any time to be included on the record of pumps accessible by means of the well being service. Nonetheless, the Nationwide Professional Group solely maintain conferences twice yearly, as per the HSE Major Care Eligibility & Reimbursement Service Pointers for Suppliers (Part 1.2).
Within the late 2010s, The Irish well being service, the HSE, invited corporations to submit tenders for insulin pumps, and since then, I’ve been receiving emails from folks with diabetes in Eire asking concerning the availability of the tubeless insulin pump right here. Additionally, in 2018, there have been simply two insulin pumps accessible right here; at the very least in 2023, there are actually three. Nonetheless, the Omnipod isn’t one in all them. In case you are all for what pumps can be found, Thriveabetes offers a listing of them.
What does a Tubeless Pump provide
The advantage of the Omnipod pumps is that it doesn’t have any tubing; all the things is contained in a small pod worn on the physique and operated utilizing a handheld system or an app on a smartphone. One of many greatest advantages of the Omnipod pump is that it’s actually good for babies who is likely to be susceptible to getting tubing from different pumps caught on objects and pulling out the cannulas. Omnipod can be now a part of the hybrid closed loop techniques. All insulin pumps are totally different sizes, work barely otherwise, have totally different person interfaces; so it’s necessary that there are a number of decisions accessible to folks with diabetes as a result of it’s a tool that’s worn always and must work properly for the person.
The Thriller round why Omnipod shouldn’t be accessible
When corporations started to announce their new pump availability in Eire, I started to suspect that Omnipod was both not accredited or Insulet had not utilized for the tender, and I made a decision to seek out out which it was. Many individuals locally suspected that the HSE refused to fund it.
To seek out out what occurred, I requested the Midwest Diabetes Advocacy Group to contact one in all our native TDs to submit a Parliamentary Query on why Omnipod shouldn’t be accessible. The replies had gotten misplaced within the forwarding e mail gap, however we did ultimately obtain this reply in December 2022 stating that Insulet had been invited by the HSE however had not submitted a young utility.