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Beef Insulin


Grecian
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Can any insulin controlled diabetics living in France, please advise if it is possible to get beef insulin prescribed in France. Mrs Grecian brought with her a stockpile of beef insulin from the UK, but alas she has almost now run out. After e-mailing the company that supplied her beef insulin in the UK, she has been advised that the company is not licensed in France. When she was put on human insulin when it first came out in the UK, it proved disastrous, with her losing all signals of any impending hypos, her then GP put her back on beef insulin, and after a while she got her warning signals back again.

Any help in this matter will be most gratefully received.

 

 

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Having visited our doctor this morning, it is not possible to be prescribed beef insulin in France, as no company in France is licensed to do so. So any diabetic who is on beef insulin, thinking of moving to France from the UK, just be aware of the situation.

We have now got to hope that the human insulin prescribed for my wife this morning, will not react with her in the same way as it did some 6 or 7 years ago, when she was first put on human insulin. The only other option open to us if it does react with her badly, is to send her prescription back to the UK, and pay privately for all her insulin. Hopefully we will not have to do this.

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Sorry to hear that Grecian.

Just a thought... Would an E112 allow Mrs G to return to UK and receive NHS treatment/prescriptions? I don't know anything about it, other than that it is noted on the covering letter that came with an E121.  If you want, I will fetch the letter & check exactly what it says?

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Thanks Âme for the reply. I looked at the NHS site regarding the E112, it seems that it is for anybody living in the UK who wants to go abroad for a specific treatment, the UK will then pay of an element of the treatment depending on the cost of it, in the other Europen country. Not sure if it would work the other way round. We will just have to see how things go when Mrs G starts to inject herself with the human insulin.

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Hi Grecian, I have the letter in front of me and I see now that you would ask for an E112 in France. Here's the paragraph for future reference, though I hope you won't need it. [:)]

"What to do if you return to the UK

Planned Treatment: If you, or any of your dependants, want to come back to the UK for specific NHS medical treatment you must ask at the office which registered your form E121 for a form E112 - Certificate concerning the return of the right to Sickness or Maternity Benefits currently being provided.  That office will decide whether to issue the form E112.

You must get in touch with the hospital in the UK before your next visit. You must tell them you want to have treatment under the National Health Service. You might have to wait some time for an appointment."

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Thanks again Âme for the reply, and thank you for taking the trouble of looking out the information. We will bear in mind what you have posted, if things don't work out on the human insulin. It seems quite feasible that she would be allowed treatment, or in this instance a prescription through the E112 route. If things get that bad I guess we will have to take a flight back to the UK, and try and get maybe 6 or 12 months supply whilst we are there.

Once again thanks for your trouble.

I have no idea why my last reply came out in blue!

 

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If its not licensed here  then I expect you'd have to pay but according to its website  Wockhard will export Bovine insulin directly to a doctor or pharmacy  on receipt of a  prescription (£25 for 10ml vial, £36 for 5 cartridges) see http://www.wockhardt.co.uk/export/insulins.asp  (edit: rereading your original message you've probably already contacted them)

 Is Mrs Grecian seeing the GP or a diabetologue? If  a GP perhaps she should ask for a referral to the nearest hospital. It won't get her bovine insulin but a specialist may be able to help.

I have read that some people who had this problem with earlier ' human'  insulins  don't always have the same problem with the more recent insulin analogues.    Perhaps she might have fewer problems using using a fast acting insulin (Novorapid or Apidra) injected before meals and a long lasting basal once or twice a day (lantus or Levimir). If she adjusts her doseages according to carb intake/exercise/ bg levels then there should be fewer hypos and therefore less possibility of developing hypo unawareness.  Theres a very good online course run by the Bournemouth hospital  http://www.bdec-e-learning.com/

 An other alternative is an insulin pump.(assuming she has type 1). I started using one of these 6 months ago because even on MDI  I was  having  almost daily  hypos (mostly because of exercise but also because of a tendency to over tight control)  I was becoming  unaware of them . Since starting to use it I  have far fewer hypos as I am able to reduce my background  insulin to a trickle when necessary,  consequently my hypo awareness has become better.

 

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Thanks Helen for your reply. Alas, Wockhard was the company she was getting her beef insulin from in the UK, and are not licensed in France.

She has seen our new doctor over here, who has prescribed the human insulin, but he didn't make too much about switching her onto human insulin, and there was no offer of a referal to see a diabetologue. If she encounters big problems with the new insulin, obviously we will have to go back and see him. I appreciate your comment about the 'old' insulin giving problems, so hopefully the newer versions have been improved. Mrs G has read about insulin pumps, but at this moment in time is not very keen on the idea. If it works for you then all well and good.

Just as a general question, how do you find the diabetic care in France? When we lived in East Yorkshire for 5 years Mrs G's care was pretty good, but when we moved to West Yorkshire for 12 months, it was pretty poor, with only referrals to the diabetic nurse. Hopefully things are better in France.

 

 

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[quote user="Grecian"]

 

 

Just as a general question, how do you find the diabetic care in France? When we lived in East Yorkshire for 5 years Mrs G's care was pretty good, but when we moved to West Yorkshire for 12 months, it was pretty poor, with only referrals to the diabetic nurse. Hopefully things are better in France.

 

 

[/quote]

Excellent, I am one of those odd people that got diagnosed with type 1 later in life and have had all my care here. I was referred directly by the GP to the local hospital which just happens to have a diabetes speciality and spent 10 days in hospital gaining control, every test under the sun  and initial education. Since then I see the specialist at regular intervals and she makes sure that I have both the regular blood tests and get appointments with  other specialists  for regular  checkups. I  also have had several days of 'therapeutic-education' and another course for the pump. In case of emergency I have the on call numbers of  the duty endo.

I can only speak for my own area but I   think you  may need to get referred to the hospital for this level of  care. (though of course the GP may himself be able to do these things)However, on my course was another English person who had been going to the GP  in France for years but had never really received either  the care or education he needed. and was developing complications. It was only a trip to hospital with DKA that resulted in this changing.

Somewhere on the net there is an official  document that describes what care people with diabetes should receive. I'll  try and find it.

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