From September, Pharmac will widen access to four treatments for people living with type 2 diabetes.
Under the new criteria, access will no longer depend on whether a person has cardiovascular or kidney disease, is considered at high risk of a cardiovascular event, or meets ethnicity-based criteria.
Instead, the medicines will be funded for patients whose blood sugar levels remain high despite other treatment.
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Rawiri Keenan, Associate Professor, Primary Care Medicine, University of Waikato, comments:
“Short of maintaining the status quo of prioritised access for Māori and Pacific patients with diabetes, widening access to all people with diabetes requiring better control is the most logical step.
“The proposed removal of ethnicity clearly fell flat with those at the front line who see the inequities in diabetes care as well as the benefits from these medications.
“Keeping these life saving medications within easy reach means efforts can remain on eliminating other barriers to accessing care not creating new ones.
“Despite the political narrative, access to care and treatment aimed at particular patient groups (including by ethnicity) remains a strongly evidenced way to reduce morbidity and mortality.”
Conflict of interest statement: No conflict of interested declared.