Aotearoa Diabetes Collective

Aotearoa Diabetes Collective Specialist diabetes care with an equitable purpose
To book - 0800 HEY ADC (439 232)
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Do you use a Tandem pump? If you do, you may be affected by the worldwide shortage of TruSteel infusion sets. Healthcare...
27/05/2026

Do you use a Tandem pump? If you do, you may be affected by the worldwide shortage of TruSteel infusion sets.

Healthcare professionals have been sent recommendations to help transition people who use TruSteel infusion sets to AutoSoft 90 (if it is safe for the person to change). This is to help make sure people who can’t transition will still be able to get access to TruSteel infusion sets. You may also find that your Pharmacy only provide 1 month supply of TruSteel during the shortage.

NZMS have some resources on their website including a YouTube video, a pdf resources with step by step instructions (with pictures) and they have a phone number to call for support. You can also ask your diabetes team for extra support if needed 0800 500 226

Go to the NZMS website > Support > Resources > Transitioning from TruSteel to AutoSoft

https://nzmsdiabetes.co.nz/resource-category/training-material-tandem/transition-from-trusteel-to-autosoft/

26/05/2026

Kia ora I’m Rachael and I have type 1 diabetes and I am calling on other people in the diabetes community with type 1 to submit feedback about this proposal.

We have done this before, we have banded together and rallied to get free access to CGM and insulin pumps for all people with type 1 diabetes. Let’s use our collective voice to stand up and say this proposal is not good enough.

The proposal as it stands is not going to save the health system money. It’s going to mean our fellow people in the diabetes community don’t get access to the medicines to prevent complications, until they actually already have complications!

We still have time to submit. Please if you have the time, click the link in our bio / comments / this post to submit feedback using our easy template.
https://pharmacfeedback.netlify.app/

We can all make a difference!

Kia ora type 1 diabetes whānau, we are asking for your help! Please if you have a few spare minutes today make a Pharmac...
25/05/2026

Kia ora type 1 diabetes whānau, we are asking for your help! Please if you have a few spare minutes today make a Pharmac submission to help ensure that everyone with type 2 diabetes has access to these lifesaving diabetes medicines Empagliflozin, Liraglutide and Dulaglutide.

As we have been doing this advocacy one of the things that has been so inspiring and reassuring is reading about the proposal for CGMs and insulin pumps. Back in 2024 Pharmac put out a proposal to fund CGM and insulin pumps with access criteria that wasn’t good enough. The community rallied and there were thousands of submissions. There was a petition of over 10,000 people! It is incredible! AND IT WORKED!! Pharmac went back to the drawing board and came back with much better access criteria that included people not only with type 1 diabetes but type 3c, monogenic diabetes and neonatal diabetes. They removed the extra hoops they were going to make people jump through! You did that!

We know how incredibly hard the type 1 diabetes community fought for access to CGM and insulin pumps. And we are asking now if you could please lend a hand to the people in our diabetes community who are being left behind by this current Pharmac proposal.

One of our goals at ADC is to help grow the type 2 diabetes online community. But we don’t have time, and we know there is an amazing community here of people with type 1 diabetes. Please, if you have a couple of minutes to spare, make a submission using the link in our bio / comments. It will literally be lifesaving to have better access to these medicines and this proposal is not it!

Submission template here https://pharmacfeedback.netlify.app/

A lot of people may be wondering why Pharmac are proposing to remove ethnicity criteria from lifesaving diabetes medicin...
25/05/2026

A lot of people may be wondering why Pharmac are proposing to remove ethnicity criteria from lifesaving diabetes medicines Empagliflozin, Liraglutide and Dulaglutide when it is clearly working!

We think it’s important to highlight how this situation has come to be and the inconsistencies that appear to be happening with applying their own Access Criteria Policy.

REMEMBER TO SUBMIT FEEDBACK BEFORE THURSDAY! Submission templates are here

Community template: https://pharmacfeedback.netlify.app/

HCP template: https://pharmacfeedbackhcp.netlify.app/

22/05/2026

Pharmac expects 10,000 more people will benefit from the changes, but the criteria which enables access to Māori and Pacific people would be removed.

22/05/2026

Let’s call out Pharmac and the Ministers claims this proposal is going to widen access to these lifesaving medicines for people with type 2 diabetes.

Let’s put the ministers claims to the test that this proposal is about “the mum managing her diabetes while raising her kids” and how even a mum with a very high risk profile would NOT meet their proposed criteria.

We urgently need everyone to submit feedback! There are links in our bio! Do not believe the claims they are making until we have the evidence!


21/05/2026

What are the downsides of people not having access to these medicines (Jardiance, Trulicity and Victoza)? When people don’t get access to these medicines it means they are left with older medicines that don’t have the same benefits - but some if them also come with risks like low glucose levels (hypos) and weight gain. It may also mean people need to do more painful finger pricks if they have to use these older medicines earlier.

In this Video Rose and I talk about what it would look like for her if she hadn’t been able to access these medicines through the ethnicity criteria.

We absolutely believe that everyone with type 2 diabetes should have access to these medicines - but if there has to be funding restrictions we need to prioritise those who need them most! And that means the people who are most likely to die earlier, be sicker and get more complications.

Please share our submission template whānau and make sure you submit before 5pm Thursday May 28th
https://pharmacfeedback.netlify.app/

20/05/2026

- Submit feedback to PHARMAC using this easy template - it should take just a minute or two. https://pharmacfeedback.netlify.app/

PHARMAC are proposing change access to lifesaving diabetes medicines! These changes have potential to cause HUGE harm to our community and health system.

We have created this template for the community to help make it easier, reduce the mental load and make it quick! It’s just a template - you can tick which of the points feel important to you and your recommendations! You can leave parts out and add extra information that will add weight to your feedback.

When you are finished you can preview, copy the text, or directly open the email app on your phone! It’s all ready to go! Share far and wide whānau! We need to flood PHARMAC with submissions!

If you have any questions feel free to send us a DM! Otherwise keep sharing whānau!

20/05/2026

A real person - with real HIGH risk of complications and cardiovascular risk over their lifetime who would not meet the proposed criteria to access these life saving medicines!

This brave person has shared their story, and how people like them could miss out on these medicines under the proposed access changes!

If there is anything you gather from this video, please know the ethnicity criteria is in place to save the lives of people who are disproportionately impacted by diabetes!

Please make a submission to Pharmac to prevent these changes from going ahead! Everyone with diabetes deserves access to these medicines! And if criteria are in place to limit access they need to ensure those at the highest risk will continue to get access!

20/05/2026

Continuing with our discussion about the issues with the PHARMAC proposal to change access criteria to lifesaving diabetes medicines - we are going to share a video highlighting the gaps in these calculators with a real person with very high clinical cardiovascular risk and risk of complications and early death from diabetes. This person has accessed these medicines through the ethnicity criteria and would not be eligible with the proposed changes to criteria.

This proposal affects real people! The changes are not equivalent and will not result in widened access to the same group of people. In fact we suspect it will restrict access to the people who need these medicines most - Māori and Pacific people and all people with a high life time risk of cardiovascular disease and diabetes complications.

19/05/2026

Pharmac are proposing changes to three very important diabetes medicines and they say they are “widening access” but we don’t believe that is true! They haven’t released any modelling or evidence behind their data!

There are two proposed changes to an already complicated eligibility criteria:

1. To lower the cardiovascular risk threshold from 15% to 10% - that’s cool! We like that idea!

2. To remove the ethnicity criteria for Māori and Pacific people! This one is not cool! We don’t like this idea! It’s not evidence based! It’s going to RESTRICT access to the people who need these medicines the most and over the next few videos we will explain why we believe that!

But first it’s important to understand what a special authority is - how these criteria work. The fact that they are based on a limited budget for medicines - not what best practice is. And also what cardiovascular risk actually means in practice.

We all urgently need to make submissions! We will be sharing templates soon. Please share these videos far and wide in your community.

https://www.pharmac.govt.nz/news-and-resources/consultations-and-decisions/2026-05-proposal-to-amend-the-special-authority-access-criteria-for-type-2-diabetes-medicines

https://www.pharmacytoday.co.nz/article/opinion/columns/equity-risk-call-retain-ethnicity-criteria-key-diabetes-medicines

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Hamilton
3204

Opening Hours

Monday 9am - 5pm
Tuesday 9am - 5pm
Wednesday 9am - 5pm
Thursday 9am - 5pm
Friday 9am - 5pm

Website

https://linktr.ee/aotearoadiabetescollective

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