Kildare diabetes advocates set a date to meet Health Minister for next month to discuss reimbursements
By Kim O'Leary
Kildare diabetes advocates have reached the aim of 17,000 signatures concerning a new petition which aims to persuade the HSE and the Minister for Health to reimburse adults and children with Type 1 diabetes, with a date now decided upon to deliver the signed petition to Leinster House next month on Wednesday 18 April.
Meanwhile, Kildare-based diabetes advocate Davina Lyon, co-founder of Diabetes T One & Diabetes Life, who was herself diagnosed as an adult with Type 1 diabetes ten years ago before her 50th birthday, has said that the Minister for Health and the HSE have still not responded to the petition.
Speaking to Kildare Now about the next phase in relation to the signed petition, Davina Lyon explained: “We have had no word from Minister Harris at all but we have set a date of 18th April to present the petition. If Minister Harris isn’t in attendance then we are arranging to have it accepted on his behalf. The petition now has nearly 17,000 signatures.”
Over 17,000 people with type 1 diabetes have been excluded from scheme. There are approximately 20,000 people with type 1 diabetes in Ireland and According to the 2012 Irish Paediatric Diabetes Audit, there are 2,750 children under 16 years with Type 1 diabetes. With the current restrictions on the reimbursement scheme only a small percentage of that number will be included and none of the 17,000 adults with type 1.
The FreeStyle Libre device is said to change the lives of many people living with Type 1 diabetes, although according to Kildare diabetes advocates and Thriveabetes very few people will actually receive access to the scheme and the Libre device which calculates blood sugar levels painlessly in the span of 10 to 30 seconds.
The Libre is a device in 2 parts, the first part is worn on the arm (a sensor ) for up to 14 days at a time and the other part is a monitor that when scanned over the sensor, giving a reading of what a person’s glucose reading is at that moment on a flash glucose meter, and when worn it almost eliminates finger pricking to check blood.
The type 1 diabetes community has reacted angrily to this decision with over 16,000 people have signed an online petition campaigning for “Equality for all people Diabetes” created by Davina Lyon.
According to the campaign, The HSE’s decision goes against the Equal Status Acts 2000 - 2004 - which states it is “unlawful for in Ireland to discriminate when providing goods, services or facilities on the basis” of a person’s age. Unlike the NHS whose guidelines on access to the Libre state they are “committed to promoting equality, eliminating unlawful discrimination and fostering good relations between people with particular protected characteristics and others.”
The HSE made this decision despite lack of clinical evidence to support their recommendation. The Health Technology Assessment Group HTAG Advice Note states that “it is unclear whether data from clinical trials(on the benefits of the Libre use in adults with diabetes) are generalizable to children”.
The HTAG Advice note estimates that the “average additional cost per patient per year for using the Freestyle Libre is €62.60”, making the cost of providing the Libre to all people with type 1 diabetes beapprox. €1.2 million, with an estimated additional savingin the“expected reduction in the need to perform finger prick testing of over 2000 times per year”.
According to Ms Lyons, many in the diabetes community considers this a "huge insult" as the HSE has already saved €5 million on blood glucose strips since April 1st 2016 when the rules governing blood glucose strips for people with Type 2 diabetes were changed.
Representatives from the Diabetes community Davina Lyon from Kildare/Offaly, Elizabeth Murphy from Waterford and Gráinne Flynn from Clare, have requested a meeting with Minister Simon Harris to discuss their concerns and to present the online petition.
They have also been informed that members of the diabetes community, who felt discriminated against, have notified the HSE of a possible legal claim based on the Irish Human Rights Equality Committee.
For more information on the petition visit:
For more information on Type 1 Diabetes visit: