Written answer
Health Strategies
The national diabetes strategy was launched, but funding for regional clinical leads remains undecided pending the HSE implementation plan and budget process.
177. Deputy Pádraig Rice asked the Minister for Health if she plans to begin implementation of the National Diabetes Strategy by providing funding to create a regional diabetes clinical lead post in each HSE health region. [67489/26]
Comment on this
The Diabetes Policy and Services Review: A Strategy for Better Care was launched on the 21st of May.
assets.gov.ie/static/documents/a41e7d5d/Diabetes_Policy_and_Services_Review_-_A_Strategy_for_Better_Care.pdf.
This is Ireland’s first national strategy for diabetes, marking a major milestone in diabetes care in Ireland. It provides a detailed assessment of our current diabetes services and sets out series of recommendations and actions to improve diabetes care delivery. The recommendations cover four key themes:
• Service Development
• Affordability and Access to care
• Better support for people living with diabetes
• Digital Healthcare
The recommendations are marked in the strategy as either short, medium or long-term goals. Short-term refers to recommendations which can be implemented within three years. Medium term recommendations can be implemented within five years, and long-term recommendations are those that will take longer than five years to fully implement.
The HSE is currently working to develop an implementation plan to ensure that the recommendations are followed through at national level and throughout the Health Regions.
Discussions relating to the 2027 Estimates process are underway and will not be concluded until closer to the date of the Budget. The HSE National Service Plan will be published after the budgetary process concludes.
Under the new HSE regional structure, the Department allocates the overall HSE budget and staffing ceiling. The detailed operational decisions on how those resources are deployed within and across Health Regions are a matter for the HSE.
While annual policy priorities and performance expectations are set out in the National Service Plan, the HSE, and specifically the REOs, are accountable for delivering these priorities in their Regions within their budget allocations. The Department does not specify funding or staffing line by line for individual services. Instead, the Department sets the overall budget and required outputs, and the HSE is responsible for prioritising its resources to meet the agreed targets.