Many diabetics appear to be hanging on to the old glucose strips and meters for as long as possible.
Diabetes Otago office manager Noeline Wedlock estimated less than a third had switched to new products.
To save money, Pharmac switched to a sole supplier, and has phased in the change over the past few months. From this month, the old strips are no longer funded.
Since December 1, the old meters have not been funded.
''It hasn't really happened yet ... It will be interesting to see from now on.
''There is quite a lot of confusion out there,'' Mrs Wedlock said.
Some GPs had incorrectly told their diet or metformin-controlled patients they were no longer entitled to a meter, which led in some cases to patients leaving doctors' practices empty-handed.
This was a communication issue that needed to be addressed, Mrs Wedlock said.
On a positive note, the changes introduced new funding for insulin pumps, which made a big difference to some people's ability to manage their diabetes.
The new supplier is Pharmaco, whose CareSens products have replaced Roche and Medica products.
Pharmaco business unit manager David Pavey said Pharmaco had written to doctors to remind them their diet or metformin-controlled patients could be supplied meters free if they needed them. These patients had never been eligible for them under Pharmac's rules, but pharmaceutical companies supplied them anyway, and that arrangement had not changed under Pharmaco.
In general, the changeover was going very well, he said.
Mornington Health Centre diabetes nurse educator Maggie Hanton said about a third of the practice's 511 patients had switched to the new meters.
Anecdotally, she had heard some diabetics had stockpiled supplies of the old strips, to continue using them with their old meters.
''Leading up to the 1st of March we did have a little run of people requesting prescriptions ... ''
It was still ''early days'' for the changeover, which had so far been smooth.
