Diabetics in despair over loss of service at local hospital

Síofra Grant

It’s 1996 and you’re a diabetic suffering from complications due to your condition. You make your way to Mullingar Hospital but there are no diabetic services available. There is no endocrinologist and no one specialised in treating your condition.

For Norman Dolan, a type one diabetic, and many others at the time, that was standard. But thanks to the efforts of the Diabetes Ireland Westmeath Branch, of which Norman is a member, it all changed. Twenty years on from the formation of their branch, Mullingar had become as he puts it, “a centre of excellence for diabetes”.

On Wednesday September 23 last, 30 years on from the establishment of the committee, Mullingar hospital ceased the diabetes services.

“I was speaking with my daughter and I had to stop for a second, the tears were coming,” said Norman. He had just received news of the closure that morning.

“So the whole department is closed, a nurse retired and that meant there was only one nurse in the facility – it couldn’t operate.”

Norman had spent the morning sharing the news with committee members. They affectionately call themselves ‘The Sugababes’. They’ve been warning of closure for months. Alas, their warnings fell on deaf ears and now, in 2026, they are back where they started.

Norman spoke on how the news has affected him and other committee members, who have fought to secure well rounded diabetic care for so many years. The sense of grief is palpable over the phone.

“I was just sickened when I heard, and thought about the work we put in as a committee, the money we pumped in doing fundraisers over the years.

“To see that nothing can be used in there at the present moment,” Norman paused there, the thought of it having become too much for him, “if I keep going, I’ll draw tears, that’s how bad it is.”

The demise of the department began last year after the dietitian left in March. That position has still not been filled. At the moment the team at the Midland Regional Hospital Mullingar are attempting to fill three vacant positions in the diabetic unit.

“We did go to the manager about it,” Norman said, “of course the usual answer you’re given is that the job has been interviewed for, but an interview does not fill the post.”

One major difficulty in the hiring process is finding a dietitian trained in the DAFNE (Dose Adjustment For Normal Eating) and DESMOND (Diabetes Education and Self-Management for Ongoing and Newly Diagnosed) systems. Those have been vital in keeping diabetics out of hospital and self-sufficient. They are so important that the committee are willing to fund training for dietitians.

“I have agreed that if the dietitian needs extra training on pumps DAFNE and DESMOND, we have the money found for that – but we can’t spend money on someone temporary.”

The 200-plus patients who had used the local diabetes service only found out that it could close via media coverage, and to add to the stress of the situation, they believed they had until October to prepare.

Norman added: “Where do we go? Nobody has given us any advice on what we are to do. We’re all disheartened by what’s happening, even the stress creates higher blood sugar levels – stress kills a diabetic.”

Norman has contacted Minister Peter Burke in the hope of facilitating a meeting with the Minister for Health Jennifer Carroll MacNeill.

There is a cruel irony there, as 22 years ago, committee members met then Health Minister Mary O’Rourke who committed to establish a diabetic service in Mullingar. Their battle was over… or so they thought.