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Test Strips For Our Aussie Members

Australiadiabetic2

Well-Known Member
Messages
94
Location
Sydney Australia
Type of diabetes
Type 2
Treatment type
Tablets (oral)
I had no idea I could get test strips at a discount from the Chemist if my GP registered me with Diabetes Australia Association

I walked into Chemist warehouse yesterday and nearly had a heart attack when the pharmacist there says $49.50 for 100 test strips !!!!!!

I rang Diabestes Australia who said under the National diabetes scheme my diabetes registered number entitles me to a discount by giving the pharmacist my registration number so there you go you learn something everyday obviously the pharmacist didnt bother to tell me either...

How do pensioners afford that ??? Do pensioners use their Health care card or still pay the same price as me?

I have found Diabetes Australia info line very helpful ,never try to rush you off the phone and very informative
 
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Ask your GP to give you the form to join the NDSS - once you have a membership card, you should be able to get test strips for the same price as a standard PBS prescription ($6.30).

I think they're making it harder than it used to be due to changes made in July 2017.
 
I'm on the pension, and my strips are $1.20 per 100. I have an accucheck Freestyle lite which have cheaper lancets than some of the other types. The lancets (stabby bit) aren't subsidised. I think with type 2, in Australia we get the strips subsidised for 6 months or 600 strips, and after that your GP has to send a letter if you wish to keep testing using subsidised strips. Seems crazy to me. I guess for most type 2s, the 3 monthly checks is seen as enough, and they won't get themselves into a dire life-threatening emergency between the HBA1C tests if they've used the strips to get a clue about how various foods and things effect them. I hope I can convince my GP that I want to keep testing, because I certainly can't find $50/month to pay full price for the strips.
 
Oops, you're right @MrsGruffy - I'm on a pension and mine are cheaper like yours. Mine is Freestyle Optium Neo. Likewise the lancet supply drums for my Multiclix lancet aren't on prescription, nor the ketone strips my meter uses (I think around $10 or so for 10 strips).

Luckily my GP was fine with signing the renewal form for the chemist. Prior to the budget changes in 2017, if you wanted strips you could get them as long as you had an NDSS registration card. Yet another "cost savings" measure that will cost them more money in the long term. That said, unless you know why and how to use the strips to tailor your diet, having them is pretty pointless.

@Australiadiabetic2 - if you're on a budget, you might find the following suggested testing regime helps you:

http://loraldiabetes.blogspot.com/2007/04/teting-on-budget.html (written before July 2017 - Alan is one of the pioneers of low carb and self-testing and is an Aussie)
 
Australiadiabetic2 said:
I had no idea I could get test strips at a discount from the Chemist if my GP registered me with Diabetes Australia Association
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I have posted the links to join the NDSS and get subsidised strips on several occasions, so I will post them again.

The NDSS website has a link to join in the top right hand side of the page, it will take several weeks to get a the membership card and info pack sent to you.

https://www.ndss.com.au/

This link is for the six monthly strip approval request form

https://static.diabetesaustralia.co...alia/14bee3f6-6933-45bc-8853-c7ef030586d2.pdf

I pay $1.10 per 100 box of strips with a concession card, and with my scripts safety net coming up at the end of the month, I will get them for free.
 
@Indy51, Just out of curiousity, what sort of readings on those keto strips are you getting? My DE tested mine last month when I explained about doing LCHF, and it was 1.5. Of course, she then proceeded to scare me half to death about a type of serious health crisis type 2 diabetics could get which she said had the potential to be worse than diabetic ketoacidosis called hyperosmolar hyperglycemic state. They do seem to like to scare you with red herrings when you don't want to follow standard advice. I showed her my first 2 weeks of readings from following the dietician's advice, which showed it was obvious that the advice wasn't helping my BGs where the following 2 weeks of LCHF were virtually instantly "poster child" levels not usually associated with diabetes, except that pesky FBG

I've been using ketostix and gettting ++ readings very consistently... but I know they're not as reliable, and some people say they're fairly meaningless.
 
MrsGruffy said:
hyperosmolar hyperglycemic state
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***? May have to look that one up. My guess it's something to do with the problems occurring for some taking SGLT2 inhibitors maybe?

I don't measure often, but in the past week I've had one reading of 0.6 and another of 1.6.

It took simply ages for my FBG to come down and can be extremely variable. I tend to think it's not that big a deal, especially if it's under 7 mmol.
 
The Aussie gov stopped subsidisation of strips for T2s that aren't insulin dependant. if you want subsidised strips you need to convince your GP that you require them and that gives you 6 months worth before you have to go through the same bull**** again. T2s are meant to follow the NDSS dietary guidelines and have 3 or 6 monthly HbA1c tests.

Unfortunately, the NDSS recommendation is for half of our energy requirements to come from carbohydrates and have only low fat stuff. For a fella like me that requires 11000 kJ / day that translates to 343g of carbs per day ( 5500 / 16 for 16 kj per gram ) or 115g per meal. I think we all know where most of our blood sugars will end up at that level. I keep mine at 20g per meal and perhaps nudge it to 30g if it is low GI AND I have previously OK'd it with my meter. Above this and my BG ends up in the asteroids somewhere between Mars and Jupiter.

Thankfully, my GP understands and signs the form. Interestingly, I've found that I can buy 500 strips from eBay for the same as the subsidised price so it is worth a further look.
 
Crocodile said:
if you want subsidised strips you need to convince your GP that you require them and that gives you 6 months worth before you have to go through the same bull**** again.
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It's pretty simple to to fill out the strip request form, I downloaded the pdf file which I linked to in my post before.

Print them out, fill them in, then get your GP to sign it when you go in my GP does not need convincing. Then give it to your pharmacy next time you go in.

I would not buy strips off Ebay, when I get them for $1.10 per 100 box.
 
That's all good as long as your GP is willing to sign the form.
 
Crocodile said:
That's all good as long as your GP is willing to sign the form.
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If I ddn't have a GP who would, I'd find another one. If they're that obstructive about something so minor, especially as I've proved my ability to control my type 2 for this long, then I would lose trust in them about more serious issues for sure. We seem to have much more choice in Oz than the UK and I really hope we stay that way.
 
Crocodile said:
That's all good as long as your GP is willing to sign the form.
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No problem there, I said if he did not sign it, my CDE will sign it so he does. He did one at the end of last month for me
 
I didn't have to ask for strips or any of that. The DE gave me a monitor and signed me up for NDSS. It's only through what I've read here that I found out that you only get them for 6 months. When I took my NDSS form to the pharmacy, they sold me my first box of subsidised strips even without having the form submitted, but they also submitted the form for me. I wasn't asked if I wanted to test. The GP told me the DE would show me how to test, so maybe she mentioned it in her referral. It was a very different experience from the one I had a few years ago when I supported someone through their diabetes diagnosis. They were just shown the nutrition information including a really big glossy brochure showing a divided plate with representations of what proportions you should eat, and told to exercise and lose weight. The GP did an HBA1C and wanted to repeat it every 3 months. That was the extent of their care. Mine was quite different.
 
MrsGruffy said:
It's only through what I've read here that I found out that you only get them for 6 months
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Grab the strip renewal form from my earlier post #6 in this thread, so you have one all filled in for you GP to sign.
 
I get that. My GP signs mine without issue. however, I do know others who have been forced to change GPs. Sometimes in smaller towns it is not so easy.
 
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