Sinn Féin Finance Spokesperson Deputy Pearse Doherty has today welcomed confirmation from the HSE that a process of recruitment to fill the vacant Senior Dietician post for persons with diabetes in Dongal has commenced, but has urged authorities to complete the process without further delay.
Deputy Doherty’s comments come weeks after it was first revealed in June this year that despite the post having been sanctioned as part of the HSE Service Plan for 2016, formal notification to begin recruiting for the vacancy had not been given by the HSE’s Primary Care Division. The HSE, following intervention from Deputy Doherty, has now confirmed however that the post has been approved in principle and that recruitment is underway.
Deputy Doherty said:
“After months of limited or no progress being made with respect to the long awaited Senior Dietician post for persons with diabetes here in Donegal, I am happy that I have now had it confirmed by the HSE that recruitment to the vacancy has now commenced.”
“There was considerable anger amongst patients and diabetes sufferers locally when it was clarified to me a few weeks’ ago by the HSE that the position, despite being included in the Executive’s 2016 Service Plan, had not had not begun recruiting as formal notification had not been authorised.”
“Following this discovery, I immediately sought answers from both the Minister and the HSE as to why no progress had been made to fill this important position for diabetics in the county in order to meet their long term care needs.”
“I’ve now received an update from the HSE which has stated that its Primary Care Division has approved the post in principle and that a process of recruitment has begun to select a suitable candidate to the post.”
“This is a welcome development as the Senior Dietician for Donegal is one of 18 such posts which had been announced by the HSE across the state to support the Diabetes Care Initiative, which was introduced to improve services for people living with Type 2 Diabetes and which commenced in October last year.”
“This is particularly welcome news for the more than 8,000 diabetics living in Donegal whom advocacy groups have said are not able to avail of more specialised services as the position remained unfilled.”
“Naturally, while this announcement has been a long time coming, it is a positive one for patients and service users in this county. It is now crucial that authorities do not needlessly delay this process any further, and I shall of course continue to raise the efforts being made to recruit a Senior Dietician for persons with diabetes with the Minister once the Dáil resumes in September.”