I've been wasting NHS money, and I never knew!

Sometimes I get annoyed at things that, if only I had known about, I could have changed. Today it's the waste of money in the NHS.

We all know that the NHS is a behemoth that has issues, mainly to do with money, but the NHS is still a great institution that no-one wants to perish, but it's spending really needs to be looked at. I am not talking about the big cash injections like the mysterious £350 million, I want the day to day small pennies to be watched.

This week I went for my yearly review with the diabetic nurse, and found out I have been wasting the NHS's money every month. If you don't know, as diabetes is a life threatening illness (type 1 - the one with insulin injections), we diabetics get our insulin and general diabetic gubbins free on the NHS. As part of the way to control our blood sugars, so we don't keel over and end up in hospital, we test our blood with a small monitor, and therefore can adjust our insulin injections.

I have been using the same monitor for over 5 years now which was given to me by the diabetic centre, and only because of an off the cuff question I discovered my testing strips cost £15.59 per pot, which is the most expensive on a NHS list I discovered when I looked it up on the internet.

I've been using a pot of these strips approximately every 25 days, more frequently if I'm ill. I found out that for all this time I could have been using a different meter (that the clinics get given free to hand out by the big companies), and the strips would be £9.95 per pot, a saving of £5.64 each time. This means that, on a conservative estimate, I could have saved the NHS around £83 per year just by switching strips, and like I said I've had this meter over 5 years so that's over  £415 lost.

That doesn't seem like much in the massive amounts that the NHS has to deal with, but with over 3 million diabetics in the UK, if the same is happening in only a percentage of the country then a lot of money is being paid out unecessarily.

As individuals we all like to have a choice, and there are a lot meters to choose from, but if we are going to continue to have a NHS that works, we need to reign in that choice to only allowing the testing strips that come within a certain budget. A lot of people don't like change, and will be in dismay at having to change meters, but if this change was made and they wish to continue with the more expensive versions then they need to pay the difference.

I have now changed my meter to the more economical version, and there is no difference to my experience of testing, so why didn't the NHS/diabetic clinic tell me about this sooner? As a diabetic this is relevant to my experience, but I can bet there is the same thing happening all throughout the NHS.

As the saying goes
'take care of the pennies and the pounds will take care of themselves'.

Thanks for reading, please write your comments below as I am really interested on your thoughts.
Karen Lee

#WeWantLeia & my search for Wonder Woman

When Wonder Woman came out on my birthday I was so happy. Finally a strong woman portrayed on the screen; the same one who I'd pretended to be a lot through my early years.

I didn't know it in my head, but when I actually tear'd up in the opening 10 minutes in the cinema, I realised that seeing a load of strong, capable women (who didn't actually need to be looked after, or saved, by men) was something I had been waiting for, for a very long time.

It's actually taken 75 years for Wonder Woman to make it to the big screen!

All wasn't rosy though, only a week later I was moaning to my hubby about the severe lack of Wonder Woman merchandise out there. I may be a 47 year old woman, but I wanted to buy some stuff (t-shirts, etc.), but no there was little to nothing in the shops.

Even when Batman vs Superman came out (a film not greatly received) there was stuff everywhere, and naively I thought that with Wonder Woman it would be the same (there is a bit on the internet, but mostly it's retro WW, not the current film).

Then I happened across this amazing TED talk. Watch it, it's eye-opening.

To my shame, I hadn't actually realised that female characters have been systematically removed from view,  #wheretheBLEEPisLeia/Gamora/BlackWidow... (shame on you Disney).

Female superheroes are being erased from view, I am bloody angry about it.

Does having a female superhero on merchandise make it impossible to sell to boys?
NO

Will having a female superhero doll make boys less macho, and girls less feminine?
NO

Me trying on retro WW knickers in 2014.
I bought them!

I was, and still am, one of those 'tomboys' (Oxford Dictionary's description : a girl who enjoys rough, noisy activities traditionally associated with boys) Christopher mentioned, and I agree with his assessment that for little girls it's a bonus to have these traits. They are described in terms such as : plucky, spirited and confident, which are all generally held to be good things.

I'm lucky to be a girl, as I am horrified to see that if I had been a young boy with a liking for 'activities traditionally associated with girls' I would've be called a 'sissy' (Oxford Dictionary's description : a person regarded as effeminate or cowardly), and I may have ended up doing myself harm, like Mike.

I have written before about my dislike of gender specific toys in 'No more mini-mummies!', in fact it was my first ever blog post back in 2014. Unfortunately not a lot has changed.

The Wonder Woman film has done a lot to show that:
- a female lead character in a superhero movie can make money
- that a female is perfectly capable of directing such a massive hit

AND
- that there IS an audience (male & female) out there

So give us more female superhero movies, but next time can we have the merchandising too. After all, Mr. Merchandising Exec., it is mainly women who buy it.

Thanks for reading, and please leave a comment below.
KL

SaveSave