Sorca Clarke (Longford-Westmeath, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

This vacancy was first advertised in December 2019. This is not a new issue. The management of the hospital knew this retirement was coming down the line. In fairness to the nurse, she stayed on to support those families who are heavily reliant on the service and speak incredibly highly of the team in place there.

I want to put this into perspective. I spoke to the parent of a child with type 1 diabetes. The family is absolutely distraught. While speaking highly of the team, she said the nurse was the glue that held the team together for the family. She was on the phone when the family went abroad and the child's bloods went out of sync and when she entered puberty, which also knocked her bloods out of sync. The girl's most recent appointment was in January. She had another scheduled for June, which was cancelled, and this week she was told that from the end of November, no further service will be available to her.

This is devastating. The constituents I spoke to are not just from Longford-Westmeath. It is also children from Offaly and Laois. The son of another lady I spoke to ended up having to attend the accident and emergency department due to an insulin overdose. This is very serious stuff. The specialist service at the moment cannot be allowed to stop. It simply cannot be allowed to fail. It is also the case that children whose diabetes is consistently well maintained are being told they cannot have access to insulin pumps because the service will not be available there any more. There is no excuse for this happening. The position of diabetes nurse is one of the toughest to fill. This position should have been advertised much earlier than it was. There is talk of possibly interviewing for the post in early December, but the patients have been told there will be no more service from the end of November.

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