Parents of children with diabetes across Donegal are to stage a protest at Letterkenny General Hospital during a visit by Minister for Health Dr James Reilly tomorrow.
Letterkenny Hospital
The Donegal Diabetes Parent Support Group said it is extremely frustrated and annoyed at the lack of progress in service provision for children with diabetes in Donegal.
Following their meeting with Minister Reilly in April 2013, they were optimistic that a Paediatric Diabetes Clinical Nurse Specialist would be appointed in Letterkenny General Hospital. At that time the minister told us we were ‘reasonable people with a reasonable request’.
Since that meeting the Paediatrician with an interest in diabetes has left the service and the staff nurse working full time in children’s diabetes has been promoted to a Diabetes Clinical Nurse Specialist (CNS) responsible for adults and children.
She is replacing a diabetes CNS who is moving to an integrated post in the community.
The group says this actually means that we have lost the progress previously made in securing a nurse working only paediatric diabetes.
The Diabetes Expert Advisory Group recommendation states there should be 1 nurse to every 100 children/adolescents with diabetes. Donegal has the numbers to have 1.5 nurses working exclusively in paediatric diabetes.
Donegal has a high prevalence rate of adults with diabetes. The current figures for the North West are:
Donegal: 5354 adults
Sligo: 2484 adults
Leitrim & West Cavan: 1250
The group says that such high numbers of adults with diabetes leads to a heavy workload for the two hospital based diabetes clinical nurse specialists who are now expected to take on the responsibility for children also. This is a dangerous development.
In relation to the children with type 1 diabetes Letterkenny hospital has:
103 children up to age 15.99 years; 5 of which were diagnosed since 1st January 2014. Sixteen children were diagnosed in 2013. There are a further 40 adolescents attending the transition clinic aged 16-19 years.
10 children from Donegal receive diabetes care in Sligo General Hospital.
27 children are on pump therapy and receiving shared care (Dublin Hospitals) with a further 17 children waiting or undergoing assessment for pump therapy. In total 54 children are attending the Dublin Hospitals.
Group spokeswoman Denise Gillespie said “A Paediatric Diabetes Clinical Nurse Specialist is essential in Letterkenny to support families with children on increasingly complex insulin regimes and will reduce the frequency of clinic appointments in Dublin.
“We learned at a follow-up meeting with Letterkenny management in Nov 2013 that the paediatric CNS post had not been progressed, despite the fact that the Expert Advisory Group on Diabetes states that there should be 1 Paediatric Diabetes Clinical nurse Specialist per 100 children/adolescents with diabetes.
“Currently children attending Letterkenny General Hospital are at clinical risk due to the lack of a specialist Paediatrician with an interest in Diabetes and the loss of the dedicated nurse dealing with diabetes in children.
“Donegal parents now feel that their concerns are not being addressed and are planning to mount a campaign through the media to highlight our frustration with the inadequate service currently being provided. Nearly every family in Donegal has someone affected with diabetes and the Donegal branch of diabetes Ireland is one of the strongest in the country, we are ready to commence a high profile campaign to achieve the care our children deserve. We feel that our patience and engagement in discussions has been pointless as we have a worse service now than before we started and this must change.”
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