Mary Butler (Waterford, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I see the Acting Chairman is multitasking today.

I take on board everything the Deputy said. As we mentioned, diabetes is a very serious illness and commencing a child on an insulin pump requires intensive education for the child and entire family, with close monitoring of glucose levels and insulin doses required, particularly in the early stages of insulin pump use. Type 1 diabetes is an intensive condition to manage and in order to provide safe care for the entire paediatric diabetes patient cohort, the service must prioritise the essential components of diabetes care for all children under the care of the service.

It is welcome that with the diabetes service in Cork, new insulin pumps will be available at the beginning of July and plans are well advanced to train staff, patients and their families in the use of these pumps. The hospital has secured additional staffing resources that are in the process of being recruited. Unfortunately, as I know all too well in my role, sometimes recruitment of staff can take between 40 and 50 weeks. We will check it out for the Deputy and see if we can get a more indicative timeline in that regard.

I assure the Deputy the South/Southwest Hospital Group remains committed to the progressive development of paediatric diabetes services within the group and to improving the service for patients of the south and south-west region. I know how worrying it is for families and especially the young children trying to deal with this on a daily basis. We will revert to the Deputy on this.

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