Thomas Pringle (Donegal, Independent) | Oireachtas source

Recently, a constituent of mine wrote to me for the third time in less than a year. She stated:

This month will mark one year since I joined the waiting list for an insulin pump in Sligo University Hospital, and still there is no end in sight. In fact, I have been informed that almost no one has been taken off this list in the past year and I am essentially in the same position I was in one year ago.

She continued:

Type 1 is a horrifyingly hard diagnosis to live with and affects almost every part of ... [her] life. This diagnosis and subsequent wait on a pump has wreaked havoc on ... [her] mental health, as I am sure it has with many others. Why am I not being afforded the tech necessary to keep me healthy and ultimately be less of a burden to the healthcare system?

I have raised this matter three times in the last 11 months. I tabled more than two dozen questions with regard to different aspects of diabetes care in the north-west region and nothing has changed. Unfortunately, the Minister of Health is in New York today so I probably will not get an answer to this either. I will ask the Minister of State, however. Will the Government ensure that funding is provided for a dedicated pump nurse in the adult diabetes services in Sligo immediately?

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