Juvenile arthritis services slashed by 50%

VITAL specialised services for children with a potentially crippling and painful condition have been halved because of staff shortages.

Dr Orla Killeen, a consultant paediatric rheumatologist at Our Lady’s Hospital for Sick Children in Crumlin, said they cannot offer children with juvenile arthritis the full range of services necessary to treat their condition because of failure to fund key specialist posts.

“We have only half the staff we should have on our multidisciplinary team. We have no social worker, no dedicated psychologist, no podiatrist. Our nurse specialist is sponsored by a drug company and that funding runs out in April and we have no clarity on what will happen after that.