Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what steps his Department is taking to address regional variations in access to flash glucose monitoring.

Reducing variation in the management and care of people with diabetes by 2020 is an objective in the National Health Service mandate. The NHS RightCare diabetes pathway shows the core components of an optimal diabetes service, as well as evidence of the opportunity to reduce variation. Ultimately it is for clinical commissioning groups (CCGs), who are primarily responsible for commissioning diabetes services, to meet the requirements of their population. In doing so, CCGs need to ensure that the services they provide are fit for purpose, reflect the needs of the local population, are based on the available evidence and take into account national guidelines. This includes determining whether specific technologies, such as flash glucose monitoring, form part of their service and if it is suitable for individual patients to support the ongoing management of their condition. The Regional Medicines Optimisation Committee North has issued advice on the use of Freestyle Libre to support the CCGs in doing this.