Arthritic children waiting up to six years for help

CHILDREN with arthritis are waiting up to six years for treatment because of a lack of specialists to treat their condition.

The first paediatric rheumatologist to be appointed in Ireland begins work next year, but Professor Oliver FitzGerald, consultant rheumatologist at St Vincent’s hospital in Dublin said at least three additional appointments are “urgently required.”

“There are waiting lists of up to six years in certain parts of the country for adults requiring treatment from a rheumatologist,” Prof FitzGerald explained. “Children requiring assessment must join that waiting list.”

The professor was speaking at the launch of ‘Jump Around’, a new support network for children and young people with juvenile arthritis.

Juvenile arthritis is the most common rheumatic disease in children and every year one in 10,000 children is newly diagnosed - 600 with a chronic level of pain.

The delay in treatment means parents must either seek treatment in the north, or bring their child to rheumatologists who do not specialise in paediatric care.

“Everyone thinks only old people get arthritis,” Mary Rose Tobin, chief executive of the Arthritis Foundation of Ireland explained. “This network is an opportunity for children to meet and socialise with other children and for parents to meet others in the same boat.”

Yesterday the Arthritis Foundation took 12 young people with the condition to meet President Mary McAleese at Áras an Uachtaráin.

Dillon Molloy from County Clare explained how arthritis prevents him from playing with his friends as much as he’d like to.

“It’s hard to keep up with the other kids,” he said. “I get too stiff in my knees and the soles of my feet and it’s really hard to run.”

A new drug for the treatment of juvenile arthritis has been developed by sponsors Wyeth, costing €12,000 a year.

“A child with arthritis has a lot of chronic pain and that is the hardest thing for parents and families to live with,” Ms Tobin concluded.