• Guest - w'd love to know what you think about the forum! Take the 2025 Survey »

Type 1 Diabetic moving to New Zealand, Christchurch

G

gemmabyant

Newbie
Messages
1
Type of diabetes
Type 1
Treatment type
Insulin
Hi guys,
I'm a type 1 diabetic, managed with blood sugar sensor and insulin injections. I'm moving to New Zealand in October. I was wondering if anyone had any advice on how to get prescriptons sorted there and the costs etc?
Is there anything I can sort before I get there?
Any advice really appreciated!
 
gemmabyant said:
Hi guys,
I'm a type 1 diabetic, managed with blood sugar sensor and insulin injections. I'm moving to New Zealand in October. I was wondering if anyone had any advice on how to get prescriptons sorted there and the costs etc?
Is there anything I can sort before I get there?
Any advice really appreciated!
Click to expand...
Tagging @EllieM, who has relevant experience.

Edit: also @AloeSvea
 
Thanks for the tag @Pipp and welcome to the forums @gemmabyant .

I've been living in South Island for 6 years (from UK and Australia).

Do you know what kind of visa you will have? As a NZ resident you just need to register with a local doctor who can prescribe insulin, blood testing strips, syringes etc. You can request to be referred to a hospital if you want endocrinologist oversight. My recommendation would be that you ring GPs and get yourself signed up as soon as you arrive. (And if you take diabetic supplies in, make sure you tell the customs folk that it is 3 montns or less supply)

I can tell you now that you don't normally get funding for libre or dexcom, though both can be bought privately. Get used to the caresens blood testing meter as that is the only one funded by pharmac (the NZ public medical system). As a T1 you should be entitled to the pro version, which also does ketones.

My GP charges me about $15 for a 3 month prescription (which has multiple items on it), unfortunately split into 3 single months. I take it to a pharmacy who used to make a charge, but looks like that fee will be scrapped from 1 july 2023. My GP charges about $40 for a visit, though things like diabetic checks and some innoculations are free.

Hopefully @AloeSvea will correct me if I've got anything wrong on gp and pharmacy costs. I'm confident on the T1 stuff.

Here's a link to the pharmac site which tells you which medicines are publically funded and also status of medicines not funded yet
pharmac.govt.nz

Home | Kainga

Improving access to medicines for all New Zealanders.
pharmac.govt.nz pharmac.govt.nz


I believe that hospital endocrinologists have the option to prescribe insulins not on their current list but your GP won't. (The only current basal is lantus).
 
Last edited:
Kia ora @gemmabyant.

And greetings extended to @EllieM - really interesting for me to read about services to type 1s here, vis a vis endo oversight and all.

I'm happy to feedback that the caresens dual BG and ketones meter is a huge improvement on the caresens BG meters of yesteryear, in terms of accuracy. Maybe the caresens company upped their game with the buckets of money they earned from Kiwis using their products? I like to think so :D . I think Kiwis truly understood the meaning of 'trade agreement' personally, when we had to change from accuchek to caresens about a decade ago. It was particularly hard on type 1s, but we type2s felt it too, for sure.

And I am certainly interested, and envious, that annual diabetic checks are still completely government funded for type 1s. Not so for type 2s. The policy here is that the burden on the diabetic is to be as low as possible, but at the same time, the free annual check disappeared for type 2s at least, since I was diagnosed nearly 10 years ago, never to be even whispered again. Health Care in crisis and all that.

The push to fund CGMs has been big here - https://www.diabetes.org.nz/cgm-for-all-campaign-2022. And I have been following it with interest.

Also -

pharmac.govt.nz

Pharmac signals first step towards funding continuous glucose monitors

pharmac.govt.nz pharmac.govt.nz

As for diabetic care at GPs - definitely join the diabetes organisation to find out good medical centres in your area, or ask EllieM? If same S.I. region? The difference between medical centres can be enormous. It is not supposed to be - I've read the literature coming out of Gov'ment for diabetes care and it sounds amazing! But the reality is that the care is patchy at best. Rural areas be darned at worst. But that may just be for type 2. My guess is type 1 lends itself to conventional medical treatment in a much more straight forward way, ie, it's insulin deficiency, so prescribe insulin, no probs there, kind of thing.

Anyhow - that's my contribution on nz conditions... (other than that - October is a very nice time of year to arrive in Aotearoa/New Zealand :) ).
 
My last hospital appointment was 2 years ago (though eye checks are annual). But I can phone the hospital DNs and think they would push me forward in the q to see the consultant if I asked. (Basically I look after my own insulin needs and cope with my lantus issues by splitting the dose, which works for me).

I currently have a cataract on my right eye and have been pushed for earlier treatment because it stops me from having my retinopathy checked. Got an offer of a cataract op much earlier than I expected, hopefully at the end of this month.
 
Back
Top