Mullingar ministers commit to backing diabetes group

The two local ministers, Peter Burke and Robert Troy, have committed to taking up the cause of the Diabetes Ireland advocacy group following a meeting at Mullingar hospital on Friday.

Mullingar man Stephen Purcell, who is “living with type 1 diabetes”, and is a member of Diabetes Ireland, said: “I’m here today at Mullingar hospital to meet Robert Troy and Peter Burke, to present them with a Diabetes Ireland budget submission proposal.”

The ministers spoke with Mr Purcell and Kieran O’Leary of Diabetes Ireland, plus other local members of Diabetes Ireland, and said they would support their cause. Minister Burke said: “It is always good to hear from people who are able to articulate exactly what the problems are that they face in their daily lives and this was the case with the diabetes delegation today. I got to hear of the immense advancements in technology in the area of diabetes management and how this affects people’s lives every day.

“There is no doubt that the role of diabetes monitoring systems such as Libre (see below) have been proven to dramatically improve the quality of life of sufferers and will play a role in managing illness and keeping patients out of the emergency health care services.

“I will certainly take on board the concerns of this group and will bring them to the attention of Minister Donnelly. In the context of the Sláinte Care budget, we will need to consider the benefits of the technology advances for patients in the long term.”

Minister Troy said he was pleased to meet the CEO of Diabetes Ireland and representatives from Westmeath. “They outlined to us the need for investment in diabetes services. What is crucially important, and what they noted was, making the necessary investment, in time, is obviously good for the wellbeing of the patient, but makes economic sense – for prevention is much better than cure.

“They have come forward with a number of recommendations and I look forward to taking up their case directly with the minister for health. It’s important when groups such as this, and indeed, any other advocacy group, come forward in a collaborative sense, there is an onus on government to respond positively to them, so I’ll be working with my colleague Minister Donnelly on these pre-budget proposals.”

Mr Purcell outlined the case of Diabetes Ireland to the Westmeath Examiner. “As diabetics, we often become frustrated knowing that products and services are available to improve our quality of life, but are too expensive. This clearly illustrates the social divide within our country and society. A question that needs to be answered by our legislators is, ‘Should we forget about those with a chronic illness or, support them to actively contribute to society?’.”

Mr Purcell said he was at Mullingar hospital to meet Ministers Troy and Burke to present them with a Diabetes Ireland pre-budget proposal. “There are eight actions that we want to be included in the budget for next year,” he said: “There are two main elements – one is education, to allow diabetics to manage their condition and live the life they want to live.

“I attended a DAFNE (Dose Adjustment for Normal Eating) course 10 years ago – it was a week long and it was life-changing. It allowed me to take control of my own diabetes, to manage it the way I wanted to manage it, to eat what I wanted to eat, to do what I wanted to do, without anything holding me back.

“The second major development is technology. I have a FreeStyle Libre sensor (a glucose monitoring system); it’s attached to your arm and you no longer need to take blood from your finger or use test strips. It takes a blood sugar reading every 15 minutes, and it can show you a graph on your phone.

“The main issue we have with this is that it is not free to anybody over the age of 21, and the cost of the phone for this is €120 a month – so we want this made available to all those with diabetes, because this is life-changing, it improves quality of life, and it prevents complications down the road.

“We know that diabetes can cause complications in terms of eyesight and limb loss, but by correct management, that can be prevented and controlled, so there is a cost saving to the HSE and the health sector when these complications can be prevented.

“In relation to the eduction course I mentioned, the reason I had access to that was I attend the clinic here in Mullingar but not everybody has access to that type of education and that is why we want Ministers Robert Troy and Peter Burke to take this on board, and to spread out what we have here in Mullingar across the country.”