The last sensor on the Libre was truly fantastic. Almost spot on and worked really well. I was able to reduce my fingerpricking to almost nothing. It expired and I stuck the new one in. It has a shaky first 24 hours (I was late applying it so it didn’t have time to settle), but rapidly got itself in line.
On Monday, I ordered some more sensors. Seven hours later, after a particularly heavy gym session (but nothing out of the ordinary in terms of daily use and abuse of me and my sensor), it gave up. I got the dreaded “This sensor is no longer working, remove it and start a new sensor” error. It had only been in place for four days. I swear it knew that I’d ordered some more and had no spares at this point. What can I say but “Aaaargh”.
I’m now at three sensors out of the last five having had issues. With this level of reliability there is no way I would recommend this system to the NHS. At £45 per sensor, the NHS would need to have a clause in place in the contract that specified that all failures would be paid for by Abbott, otherwise it will bankrupt them.
I’ve only been using the Libre system for three months, but in that time, I’ve placed four orders and Abbott have replaced items four times. That’s 50% of what I’ve used, I’ve not had to replace. That’s an incredibly low reliability rate.
I wonder if all those who are clamouring for this system on the NHS are really seeing the level of returns that are taking place and have worked out how this should be incorporated into any contractual agreements. This long term Beta test is really proving that the product isn’t quite ready for the big time.
On a different note, I’m looking forward to April and the Dexcom G5. If what they are planning is really what it appears to be, I will have to buy an iPhone and start using CGM from that!
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