Caít Keane (Fine Gael)

I refer to events to take place on National Diabetes Day. Thanks to the media which have provided facilities and doctors who are freely giving of their time, tests are ongoing at various shopping centres throughout the country. Why is this test not mandatory when a patient presents to a general practitioner? The pinprick blood test is not common. The way the country is going, preventive medicine should be as important as curative. Today is about preventive medicine, but there should be facilities available. I do not know how expensive the machines are, but there should be one in every area with three or four GPs and the public should be made aware of the test's availability. Currently, patients queue for blood tests in hospitals, which is time consuming for nurses and other staff whose time could be otherwise used. Will the Minister for Health investigate why such tests are not a daily occurrence in GPs' surgeries or even area GPs' surgeries?