INPUT’s mission: to improve patient access to insulin pump therapy by ensuring that every person with Type 1 diabetes* who could benefit from using an insulin pump and wishes to use one – whatever their age – receives an appropriate insulin pump and specialist support through the NHS.
* our focus is on Type 1, but we advocate for insulin users of any Type.
INPUT is a patient-run group for people using or wishing to use insulin pumps to control their diabetes. We are an independent organisation that offers no allegiance to any manufacturer. Our prime objectives are to increase the awareness and understanding of insulin pump therapy. We feel strongly that people should be given the opportunity to choose the best care for their diabetes. In our opinion, the insulin pump is the best tool currently available to help well-motivated people with diabetes to achieve improved control and quality of life.
INPUT was founded in 1998 by John Davis, a pump user himself since 1997. It serves as a clearinghouse for information on insulin pump therapy and an advocacy group for consistent funding for insulin pump therapy across the UK. NHS Primary Care Trusts must comply with NICE Technology Appraisals, but inadequate governmental supervision of their implementation and little support from the Department of Health to establish best practices have made the NICE guidance on insulin pump therapy very difficult to enforce. INPUT works with Diabetes UK, the JDRF, the Department of Health, members of Parliament, the diabetes care industry, consultant diabetologists, diabetes specialist nurses, general practitioners, and the Insulin Pump Association to bring about full adoption of the NICE guidance on insulin pump therapy.
Since February 2011, INPUT has had an advisory group consisting of:
Jacqui Double – mum of two pump-using children
Melissa P Ford Holloway – adult pump user
Rebecca Thompson – Nurse Consultant, Diabetes, Children & Adolescents, UCLH London
John Pickup – Professor of Diabetes, King’s College London School of Medicine, Guy’s Hospital Campus, London. Meet him here – http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/health-10887055
Lesley Jordan – INPUT Chairperson from November 2011, volunteer from 2005.