Pharmac takes over hospital meds.

23 July 2010
7 Comments

Hi guys, hot off the press news for you all (thanks to Lisa and Chris for sending me info) – an announcement was made yesterday that Pharmac is now going to take over the buying and managing of hospital medications/equipment – they previously only did “community pharmaceuticals”.

The most interesting part of the article (link below) is the part where they say they’ll take on insulin pumps first:

Ryall also said Pharmac  would have a role in the new Shared Services Agency in the management and procurement of medical devices, starting with insulin pumps.

Full article here:

http://tvnz.co.nz/health-news/pharmac-takes-over-new-responsibilities-3669595

What are your thoughts, people? I suppose my take on it is that we shouldn’t get too excited, because it’s not like…

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By Nic on 23 July 2010 at 7.00 am
Posted in Funding, Insulin Pumps, Medical Services
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Thursday poll: What age were you diagnosed with Type 1?

22 July 2010
20 Comments

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By Nic on 22 July 2010 at 10.12 am
Posted in General
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Desert dingo racing.

21 July 2010
2 Comments

I saw a mention of this in a newsletter which came into my inbox about World Diabetes Day and I was intrigued. What is this Desert Dingo Racing I wondered, and what has it got to do with diabetes? I went to their site, saw the car (see image on the right), and was instantly enamoured.

I remember as a very little girl my brother and I were big fans of the Herbie movies (like Herbie goes to Monte Carlo etc) and this car (a 1969 VW Beetle) is just like it.

So I still haven’t put the pieces together for you. It’s pretty simple really…

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By Nic on 21 July 2010 at 9.48 am
Posted in Community, Funding
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Medical insurance.

20 July 2010
14 Comments

Hi all, just a quick one today.

Can any of you recommend your medical insurance company in respect of diabetes cover? I was fortunate enough to be covered by Southern Cross before I became a T1, so feel adequately covered (although I’ve never been admitted to hospital for anything T1 actually, and as of yet – touch wood – don’t have any complications).

The one thing I was pretty gutted about was that they would not cover the cost of an insulin pump. I have been with them for over 20 years.

I heard someone say that Sovereign had granted a few insulin pumps, but I never formally followed it up. Can anyone out there elaborate?

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By Nic on 20 July 2010 at 9.37 am
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Over 18? Take a number, honey.

19 July 2010
10 Comments

As those of you who’ve been reading this blog a while know, I was extremely fortunate to be given a ‘permanent loan’ of an insulin pump from Waitemata DHB, late last year. When I was waiting to hear if I was going to be one of the lucky ones to be issued with the pump, I spoke to various people at the hospital to keep up to date. One conversation didn’t go so well because the person on the other end was telling me the committee responsible for allocating the pumps had been strongly in favour of only loaning them out to people under the age of 25 (at that point I…

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By Nic on 19 July 2010 at 9.32 am
Posted in Community, Funding, Insulin Pumps
This post has 10 comments so far. Add yours here.