Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health, whether patient uptake of insulin pumps has reached the levels set by the NICE technology appraisal 151 benchmarking tool issued in July 2008; how many people have taken up the use of such pumps; and if he will make a statement.

Commissioners and providers should make insulin pumps available for those people with Type 1 diabetes who meet the criteria in the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence’s technology appraisal guidance on continuous subcutaneous insulin infusion for the treatment of diabetes mellitus (TA151) as well as ensuring that relevant structured patient education is provided to support people newly diagnosed with diabetes and at appropriate points in their life as their condition progresses.

Information on the number of people using insulin pumps is not collected centrally.

The United Kingdom Insulin Pump Audit, published in May 2013, collected data from across the United Kingdom. The audit demonstrated that 6% of adults with Type 1 diabetes and 19% of children with Type 1 diabetes were being treated with insulin pumps. The audit’s findings are available at:

www.diabetes.org.uk/Documents/News/The_United_Kingdom_Insulin_Pump_Audit_May_2013.pdf