Pearse Doherty (Donegal South West, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

I echo what Deputy Mac Lochlainn stated with regard to the Minister's acceptance of an invitation to meet the families next week. Oireachtas Members from the county will be also at that meeting and I hope it will be possible to bring about some finality in respect of this matter. It is unique that the four Opposition Deputies from Donegal have raised this matter. I accept, however, that the Government Members from the county support us in respect of it.

When he met the families in April 2013, the Minister informed them that they were reasonable people with a reasonable request. The request they were making at that time related to the diabetic clinical nurse specialist. As Deputy Mac Lochlainn indicated, we have received reports from the hospital to the effect that this is an enhanced service and we have been asked why we are complaining because what is on offer is actually better than the service which previously obtained. On paper and otherwise, it does appear to be enhanced. This is because there is an integrated clinical nurse specialist on site. As a result, there is not a shadow of a doubt that there is an enhanced service available for those with diabetes. However, we are focusing on the area of paediatrics and the nurse who previously provided the service in this regard has been replaced. The upshot is that there will now be a clinical nurse in place to deal with both adult and paediatric patients. The nurse who previously worked in this area was a specialist and she provided expert care to children. What is required here is a dedicated clinical nurse specialist.

The parents are concerned with regard to the amount of time the new nurse will be in a position to allocate in respect of paediatrics. The relevant expert group recommended that there should be one clinical nurse specialist for every 100 children. As Deputy Mac Lochlainn indicated, in Donegal at present there are 145 children under the age of 18 who have type 1 diabetes. Six of those children were diagnosed with the disease in the first 12 weeks of this year. This indicates that one case is being diagnosed very second week and that the rate is increasing quite significantly. I understand that the Minister has called on the management at the hospital to resolve this matter and stated that a clinical nurse specialist should be appointed to the area of paediatrics. I hope he will confirm that the latter is, in fact, the case and that we will be united on this issue.

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