A charity has welcomed the news that wearable glucose monitors will soon be made available to thousands more diabetes sufferers – as it could help to end the postcode lottery for patients in Dorset.

NHS England announced last week that it would provide funding to make the Freestyle Libre monitors available to tens of thousands of people with Type 1 diabetes across the country.

The device, which is the size of a £2 coin and sits on the arm, will be available on prescription for all patients who meet the guidelines from April 2019.

It will hopefully end the current variation patients in some parts of the country are experiencing in accessing the monitor. In Dorset the technology is only available to a small cohort of patients, and there have been strong calls for the Dorset Clinical Commissioning Group (CCG) to make it more widely available.

The life-changing monitor significantly reduces the need for painful finger prick blood tests by relaying glucose levels to a smart phone or e-reader.

Matt Robert is from the charity Diabetes UK and works as the improving care manager for the south west.

He said: "It's brilliant because people will have the same access to technology in Dorset as people do in Somerset, whereas at the moment it's completely different just because of their postcode.

"In an ideal world everyone would have access to it, but the people who will be able to access it are those that need it most.

"Lots of families are going to be thrilled. It's those small lifestyle changes that make a big difference."

Shona Freeborn from Weymouth, whose husband Tim has had diabetes for almost 40 years, said she is "delighted" that more people will be able to benefit from the monitor next year.

She said: “It’s really welcome news, we were originally given a monitor when they first came on the market and have had it around two years.

“Your quality of life and wellbeing changes. You feel like you can take a walk through a muddy field and just have a quick check of the flash monitor. You wouldn’t be able to that with a blood test.”