How long is a month?

A month averages 30.436875 days, apparently, according to google, but sounds right.

A lunar month as we see from Earth is 29.5306 days, again, according to google, but sounds right.

What is fun is people saying we should do 28 day months, which is, I think, not daft for many reasons, but we need to allow for the extra days, or two, outside of the months. The extra day(s) would be way better at end of year and a holiday. What is special is that one reason they say this is to align with the moon which is simply not the case.

But put that all aside and let's talk of prescriptions!

In England I had, I think, 8 week prescriptions, and in Wales it is 4 week.

But clearly things vary around the world, and there seem to be two key styles of packaging for drugs - either 28 day or 30 day.

This must be hell for any pharmacists, either adding 2 or removing 2 from packages to meet 28 or 30 day based prescriptions. Why no standard?

Freestyle Libre 2

But this gets interesting. If you have these on prescription the pharmacist cannot make it up from 28 day to 30 day, or from 30 day to 28 day, they are 14 day sensors. They are 28 day for two, 56 day for 4.

So they are not like other meds that can adapt to 28 or 30 day basis. You cannot add 2 days extra from next box to make a 28 day prescription to 30 days.

Freestyle Libre 2 Plus

They now do the plus which is a 15 day sensor. This means they can work with 30 day based prescriptions. A clever move. But still, a pharmacist cannot take 2 days out of a package or two to meet a 28 day based prescription.

Cynic

So now the cynic in me says...

1. It probably is the same sensor. They may have had to do new approvals, and new tests and trials to prove it is within a good tolerance after 15 days, but I bet the 14 day sensors are the same, just not verified as such. Yes, I may be a cynic.
2. This means they cost them the same, but what if NHS pushed for lower costs, this means a 7% reduction in cost when selling the same thing for the same price, that is a win for the bean counters.
3. Anyone on normal 4 or 8 week prescription will take a year, or two years, to have a prescription where there can miss a prescription and so mean Abbot actually lose out.
4. But anyone using these knows they fail some times, so a spare is handy, so nobody, when they get to the year, or two years, when they could skip this on a repeat prescription will do so. Why would you?
5. What is clever is that if one fails, and someone now has a spare, they will likely just use the spare rather than the hassle of calling, or filling in web form, to get a (free) replacement now. That will make the failure statistics way better, whilst meaning they get the same money as they would from 14 day sensors.

To be very very clear, this is a totally cynical viewpoint, and my own personal speculation. It may not be true.