Aotearoa Diabetes Collective

Aotearoa Diabetes Collective Specialist diabetes care with an equitable purpose
To book - 0800 HEY ADC (439 232)
📖 Evidence Based🎗️Charitable

03/06/2026

Kia ora koutou, Solita here, I thought I would share some reasons why making a submission is important to me. This one is a bit personal but it’s real. Pharmac are estimating 7000 Māori and Pacific people would lose access to these diabetes medicines in their proposal over the next 5 years. 7000 people who have a 3-5x higher risk of developing end stage kidney disease and ending up on dialysis. As someone who has a brother who has kidney disease caused by diabetes and is on dialysis this hits home! I’m currently working up to donate a kidney to him and wasn’t planning to share that until later in the journey, but we (my brother and I) have decided to share because we want the community to understand that these are real people who end up with these complications! Why on earth does Pharmac think that it is acceptable to remove access to a medicine that can help to slow and prevent these complications? And to then not model the impact of removing access to these medicines for those people.

While not everyone with diabetes will develop these complications, we know that Māori and Pacific have a much higher chance of ending up with end stage kidney disease and therefore it makes absolutely no sense to me to delay and remove access from that group.

Feel free to drop a comment and share why making a submission is important to you!

https://pharmacsubmission.netlify.app/

01/06/2026

Updated submission builder template!
We have spent the weekend updating this to reflect the new information Pharmac supplied on Friday night.

This includes new tabs to understand the proposal and see the proof to support the points in the submission template.

If you have already made a submission, go ahead and make another as Pharmac haven’t said we can’t - and our first submissions didn’t have all of the information.

Let’s make sure that Pharmac don’t removes and delay access to thousands of people with type 2 diabetes.

https://pharmacfeedback.netlify.app/

29/05/2026

A reminder to keep doing your submissions.

We want to highlight again how this proposed change to remove ethnicity from the criteria does not appear to be consistent with their other funding decisions.

Pharmac refer to their access criteria policy and the letter of expectations as a reason to change the criteria for these diabetes medicines (Empagliflozin, Dulaglutide and Liraglutide). Remember that policy and LoE state they shouldn’t use background or demographics such as age or ethnicity as a proxy of need. They state they should focus on broad clinical criteria that defines a group… however they continue to use age as a proxy of risk for other pharmaceuticals they fund such as the 2026 Flu vaccine which is funded for any adult age 65 years or older regardless of clinical conditions… that’s because older age increases the risk of getting very sick, being hospitalised or dying from the flu. Well guess what! Being Māori or Pacific increases not only the risk of developing type 2 diabetes but getting significant complications and having a shorter life. We know the current access criteria has been working really effectively to improve access to these medicines for Māori and Pacific whānau with type 2 diabetes, and Pharmac are still yet to provide any data to show us that this proposal wont worsen outcomes for these people!

Submissions close June 11th use the link in our bio to access our template.

https://pharmacfeedback.netlify.app/

Pharmac have extended consultation for another 2 weeks! This is a direct result of the community pushing back and demand...
28/05/2026

Pharmac have extended consultation for another 2 weeks! This is a direct result of the community pushing back and demanding better consultation. That’s means two more weeks we can use to drum up more submissions and feedback.

But also two weeks for them to show us the data. Show us their modelling. Show us how this proposal will actually “widen” access.

We will keep sharing information and resources but in the mean time if you haven’t made a submission please feel free to use the link in our bio. Everyone with type 2 diabetes deserves access to Empagliflozin and everyone with type 2 diabetes at higher risk of heart or kidney disease deserves GLP1a - the currently funded ones and ones Pharmac may fund in the future. We must ensure Māori and Pacific whānau are not excluded from this criteria and left to wait until they have complications!

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!


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