Róisín Shortall
Question:1002. Deputy Róisín Shortall asked the Minister for Health the timeline he is working towards for the creation of the virtual national diabetes register; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [14657/22]
View answerTuesday, 22 March 2022
Questions (1002)
Written answers
The development of a national diabetes registry remains a priority. The National Diabetes Registry Demonstrator Project, funded through Sláintecare, was paused as key HSE staff were redeployed onto urgent on-going COVID-19 work. Following substantial increases in investment in eHealth, the national diabetes registry is now being considered as part of a wider review of Ireland’s health information strategy, and will operate as a “virtual” registry.
I propose to bring, in April, a Memorandum to Government for approval to prepare the General Scheme of a Health Information Bill. It is envisaged that the Bill will include a provision to enable the operation of disease-specific “virtual” registries, including a virtual national diabetes registry, where information on disease diagnoses and treatment from healthcare providers is efficiently collated, combined and quality-checked from administrative records to create a database akin to an active registry for each disease. This will greatly improve the potential to monitor rare-disease prevalence in Ireland.