Requests by diabetes patients to swap free insulin needles with shorter ones were dismissed on grounds of effectiveness.
Nationalist MEP Francis Zammit Dimech this week called for the provision of 4mm pen needles rather than the 6mm ones provided for free for glucose injections in a bid to minimise pain and trauma for children.
In a letter to the Health Minister, he said it was “generally painful” for children to be injected several times a day with the longer needle.
“I have been informed that relatives of Type 1 diabetic children have been purchasing pen needles at a cost of €11 per pack of 100 pen needles for the sole purpose of minimising pain and trauma on children,” he said.
Asked whether the government planned to provide 4mm pen needles instead, a spokesman said using the shorter needles could lead to incorrect dispensing if these were given to adolescents and adults instead of children. This was because the length might not be sufficient to reach the correct depth for best use of insulin.
Minimising pain and trauma on children
“It is for such reason that the use of 6mm needles in young children was recommended across the board, with children being injected at 45˚ angle instead of the usual 90˚ angle or using a skin ‘pinch-up’ to avoid dispensing errors that might lead to the treatment not being effectively administered into the patient with the correct dose,” the spokesman said.
He added that, according to clinicians, needle thickness was more important than length to avoid injection-associated pain and that was why the Health Department invested in thinner needles of better quality.
In his letter to the Health Minister, Dr Zammit Dimech reiterated his call for glucose monitors that remove the need to draw blood several times. He asked for these to be made available without further delay.
The monitors involve inserting a small sensor under the skin, which measures blood sugar levels constantly. Continuous glucose monitors record spikes and drops exactly as they happen, allowing patients to know what they were doing and plan against it in the future.
The spokesman told the Times of Malta the Health Department was undertaking market research on glucose monitors to establish the parameters through which such a system could be introduced at a sustainable cost with reliable results.