Duncan Smith (Dublin Fingal, Labour) | Oireachtas source

I thank the Minister. I am very encouraged by the final part of his response. I met with Ms Lora Ruth Wogu, the CEO of Sickle Cell Ireland, and Ms Ijeoma Nwabuezi, who is on its board. One of their key concerns is how under pressure the St. James's service is. The service at St. James's Hospital, and the clinicians, are fantastic but they are under pressure. The Minister has acknowledged that. We need to improve resources there.

One of the things I have learned about sickle cell disease is that we need early diagnosis. We may need improved training for our front-line health professionals, GPs and nurses, to help them identify it earlier. It is a rare condition. We also need to consider a universal newborn screening campaign that can be done with the heel prick test. This is a condition that mainly impacts people of African heritage and some people from the Middle East. There are ways in which this could be done efficiently and in a targeted fashion to help follow-on services and the provision of new therapies.

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