Monthly Archives: October 2013
Faulty diabetes pens in recall
Faulty diabetes pens in recall
Mark Gould
Tuesday, 29 October 2013
People with diabetes or their carers are being asked to check their insulin pens or pen cartridges after a manufacturing fault has resulted in a precautionary recall across Europe of 33 specific batches of insulin pens and cartridges.
The manufacturing problem concerns a fault in the filling of the cartridges, which resulted in some batches of pens and cartridges containing too much or too little insulin.
In a medicines alert, The Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency (MHRA) said the affected products are the NovoMix 30 Flexpen 100U/ml pre-filled pen and the NovoMix 30 Penfill 100U/ml cartridge.
The MHRA said that last year alone, just over one million (1,063,599) prescriptions in England were dispensed for these insulin pens and cartridges. Information from the manufacturer shows that only around 0.14 per cent of the 3.3 million cartridges that are sold across Europe are likely to be affected by the manufacturing problem. Therefore, the safety risk to people with diabetes in the UK is likely to be limited to a small number of people.
Letter to Editor: Unpaid carers filling gap in health and social care
Seven million family carers provide unpaid care to a family member
Welfare changes for disabled people delayed
The government said the process of reassessing people was taking longer than planned
People will move from Disability Living Allowance to the Personal Independence Payment next week in only certain areas instead of the whole of Great Britain.
Work and pensions minister Mike Penning said the process of reassessing people was “taking longer than expected”.
Shadow work and pensions secretary Rachel Reeves said it was the “latest example of chaos” in the department.
‘Controlled approach’
Claimants will remain on Disability Living Allowance (DLA) for the time being except those in Wales, the East and West Midlands and East Anglia who will transfer to Personal Independence Payment (PIP) from Monday if their condition changes.