Parents of diabetic children fear for future of clinic

Parents who received a letter stating that the paediatric diabetes service in Mullingar Regional Hospital where their children attend was to close with immediate affect due to staffing issues have raised their concerns over management’s claims that the clinic will reopen in coming weeks.

Parents had voiced their anger at the closure of the service saying the move would have a detrimental effect on their children’s health and wellbeing.

The 130 patients who attend the clinic received a letter from the Consultant Paediatrician Professor Michael O’Grady earlier this month informing them of the immediate closure due to “ongoing unsafe staffing issues.”

It pointed out that If the service in Mullingar could not be restored children under 16 would be referred to the diabetes services in Crumlin, Temple Street or Tallaght Hospitals.

In an emotive letter to parents, Dr O’Grady explained how he had started the insulin pump service for children in Mullingar in 2014 with “no resources in the hope that some might follow.”

He said how over the past eight years he had been “at end of the phone on evenings and weekends” when not on call to “provide advice to colleagues when children presented unwell to the hospital so they can benefit from his experience.”

The letter went on to say that: “Even during 2020 without a diabetes CNSp 15 children were started on insulin between January and August, the most we have done any year during my time here.

“I have given everything I have to give and I can do no more. The additional workload placed on me by efforts to sustain the service has led to a situation where I can now no longer give you the best that I have to offer.”

Last Friday the hospital management released a statement saying they were “currently in the process of hiring a new diabetic paediatric nurse” and hoped the new appointment would be in situ in the coming weeks.

Siobhan Beatty’s ten-year-old daughter Emma was diagnosed with type 1 diabetes in January 2020.

“We as parents have major concerns about these promises as there has been talk a number of times before of imminent resolution and resourcing yet there is still no sign of any nurse.

“Rather than these vague promises that are never fulfilled, the hospital needs to provide a detailed statement outlining exactly how they plan to provide proper care in a sustainable fashion for our children.

“We would like to know what date the service will reopen and what permanent resources will be in place when it does open.

“How can it be the case that the consultant involved is unaware of any developments if resolution is imminent – never mind us parents!

“How is it possible that the hospital has advertised, interviewed and offered the position in a five day period of time? – HSE recruitment campaigns usually take on average six months!

“The consultant, Dr O’Grady, is unaware of any recruitment efforts and is supposed to be involved in the recruitment process?

“What is a diabetic paediatric nurse as referred to in their statement? Is this not a paediatric nurse who has diabetes? It’s certainly not the correct title for the job under discussion and they wonder why we have little faith!

Siobhan who lives in Athboy has never been able to access a diabetes nurse for her daughter. She said:

“I was horrified when I heard the clinic was closing because it means we will be going to a Dublin clinic and they are already overrun as it is and there are 130 families about to land on the door on top of what they already have.

“The national model for care of paediatric diabetes that sets out the ratio that would be required for providing proper care and it suggests that you would have two clinical nurse specialists based on the number of 130 patients at present where we currently have none.

“There is no social worker or psychological support service either. You are talking about kids turning into adolescents, going through that whole period of life with this additional burden on them.

“Your whole time is taken up with it, every waking moment and through the night is taken up with wondering what their level is at now, do they need to take more food or take more insulin, do they need to exercise to try and get their numbers down, it is a constant balancing act between activity, food and medicine.”

Veronica Mullins’s daughter Ava (12) from Ballivor was diagnosed with type 1 diabetes four years ago and had been attending the unit every four months since that time.

Veronica is worried how this development will affect the youngster. She added:

“This is after knocking us for six. Ava knows the doctors in the hospital, she knows the routine, going to a bigger hospital in Dublin and having to meet new doctors will be daunting for her.

“For every 50 children there should be one specialist nurse, they need a minimum of two but they don’t have any.

The Ballivor mum is concerned at how her daughter could be impacted starting secondary school in September.

“She is on injections at the moment, and we wanted her on a pump before she started secondary school and that is all put on hold now as well.

“Her SNA helps her inject herself at school, but we don’t know if she will have an SNA in secondary school so were hoping she’d be on the pump so she could manage that herself.

“Now she’s going to have a room to go and do her injection on her own and she won’t inject herself at the moment, so we are going to have to work on that.”