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Over 12,000 diabetics face the possibility of hypoglycaemia from faulty blood-insulin measuring equipment.
Testers found measuring strips in the Roche Accu-Chek Performa were giving diabetics higher blood glucose level readings than other readers.
Both the Government's drug-buying agency Pharmac, which provides the meters, and multinational drug company Roche, who makes them, have warned diabetics of the risk of injecting themselves with too much insulin after taking the wrong readings.
Pharmac's medical director Peter Moodie said the manufacturer, Roche, will exchange Performa test strips for Advantage test strips free of charge.
Doctors had heard anecdotal accounts of the meters reading higher than other normal, and a Christchurch physician tested 20 of his colleagues, confirming the fault, Dr Moodie told NZPA.
The other Government-funded blood glucose measuring strips and meters - Optium or Optium Xceed (supplied by Medica Pacifica) and Accu-Chek Advantage (supplied by Roche Diagnostics) - were not affected.
"It is good that we found this now, rather than later when there were 80,000 of them out there," he said.
Roche Diagnostics spokeswoman Roz Vickerman said though the results were higher than expected, they were still within internationally accepted safety guidelines.
The meters had been distributed to about 12,600 people with type 1 or type 2 diabetes, she said.
The company was recalibrating the diagnostic strips, a process expected to take was expected to take about 12 weeks.
"Roche Diagnostics has advised customers and healthcare professionals that the Accu-Chek Performa meter will report around 10 to 15 percent higher glucose values than the Accu-Chek Advantage system," she said.
- NZPA
