A new model of care for children with type 1 diabetes, which aims to improve the quality of care being provided to all young people with this condition, has been launched by the Minister for Health, Leo Varadkar.

According to Minister Varadkar, diabetes in children can cause significant worry for families and specific guidance on how to care for affected children is needed by parents. The children themselves also need good age-appropriate information on self-care.

"The evidence shows that the earlier you provide diabetes education, the better the outcome. This model of care was developed after consulting with children and their parents. It will improve access and quality of care for all children with type 1 diabetes, and we hope it will reduce acute and chronic complications in the future.

"It should improve diabetes education, and facilitate carbohydrate counting and the early use of insulin pumps. It will also guide the further development of paediatric diabetes services," the Minister commented.

Key recommendations contained in the model of care include:
-Ongoing training and structured education of paediatric diabetes teams
-The development of national education programmes for children with type 1 diabetes and their families and carers
-The establishment of Integrated Practice Units (IPUs) on a regional basis, with a centre of excellence and a number of outreach centres.

According to Diabetes Ireland, the development of IPUs means that children ‘can be seen by their diabetes team relatively close to where they live, which is a huge plus for many families in rural Ireland who currently travel to Dublin and Cork for their care'.

"This is a huge issue for all parents. At present, many families do not receive structured education at diagnosis, nor do they receive instant access to technologies such as insulin pumps, which are proven to provide better outcomes in the longer term," the national diabetes charity noted.

Commenting on the new model of care, Diabetes Ireland chairperson and consultant paediatric endocrinologist, Prof Hilary Hoey, acknowledged that insulin pumps are now available to all children under the age of 12.

"But in many instances, due to staff shortages, there is a long waiting list for the intensive training required prior to receiving a pump and the ongoing support required in the first three months of using a pump.

"For similar reasons, structured education programmes for all children with diabetes and their families, which have been developed, are not uniformly delivered nationwide," she pointed out.

She said that as a first step, she would like to see extra staff resources provided nationwide to address these two key issues.

Diabetes Ireland noted that in order for these IPUs to work, current paediatric diabetes teams, some of which are already under-resourced, will require extra resources.

"Diabetes Ireland is calling on the various HSE regional managers to prioritise implementation of the IPUs and provide the necessary resources, financial and human, as a matter of urgency. We will of course be engaging with the HSE to deliver this at a local and national level," Prof Hoey said.

According to the HSE, implementation of this model of care ‘is planned for the next five years'.