Dáil Éireann Debate, Wednesday - 19 January 2022
1386. Deputy Róisín Shortall asked the Minister for Health his plans to assist with the lack of resources in secondary care paediatric and adult diabetes services across the country; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [63068/21]
View answerPaediatric Diabetes services are currently provided in 19 sites across the country. In the majority of sites, care is led by a consultant with specialist training in paediatric diabetes. In four centres, care is led by consultant general paediatricians who care for patients with type 1 diabetes as part of their general paediatric role. The majority of centres have Clinical Nurse Specialists or Advanced Nurse Practitioners, or both, trained in paediatric diabetes, while three smaller centres rely on Clinical Nurse Specialist staff from the adult diabetes services to deliver care to children with diabetes.
The National Clinical Programme (NCP) for Diabetes carried out a comprehensive survey of staffing in hospitals providing outpatient diabetes care in 2018. This survey acknowledged deficits in staffing across all related professions. Significant workforce recruitment has been undertaken to support the provision of hospital diabetes services.
The NCP for Diabetes have advised of approval granted for a total of 54 recent diabetes services related appointments, comprising of Consultant Community Diabetologists, Advanced Nurse Practitioners, Clinical Nurse Specialists, Dietitians and Podiatrists to HSE hospitals. These posts are linked to the HSE Enhanced Community Care (ECC) Programme, to fill gaps in acute services to enable hospital teams support Specialist Diabetes teams based in Ambulatory Care Hubs in the community setting.
The strategy that the NCP for Diabetes is taking to develop adult secondary care Diabetes services and address the deficit in insulin pump therapy skills in acute hospitals is as follows:
- Update the 2018 Audit of Diabetes Care Staffing in Acute Hospitals with a focus on the ability of individual teams to support insulin pump users;
- Continue to increase the number of Centres delivering the DAFNE Self-Management Education programme in Ireland;
- In hospitals not currently supporting insulin pump therapy, once staff are trained in delivering the DAFNE programme, explore capacity and training requirements to support insulin pump therapy.
The 2021 National Service Plan recognised the need for an unprecedented expansion of the permanent health workforce through permanent appointments. Funding was provided for an increase to approximately 135,655 WTE across the health service by December 2021, an increase of 15,838 WTE over 2020 funded levels. Work will continue with the 2022 National Service Plan to meet recruitment needs.
