A project to provide type 1 diabetes patients with free continuous blood glucose monitors will be extended to patients aged up to 21 as of next week, Chris Fearne said on Saturday.

The monitors were already being given out to children aged up to 16 who live with type 1 diabetes, as part of a successful pilot project to that effect.

As their name implies, continuous blood glucose monitors keep constant track of a patient’s blood glucose levels using a tiny sensor placed under the skin, sending out alerts when levels get too low or high and allowing patients or their carers to better monitor their health.

Sensors must be regularly replaced, however, and costs can run up to hundreds of euro every month if purchased privately. 

Health Minister Fearne revealed that the devices would be distributed to patients aged up to 21 in a post on social media network Twitter. 

Extending the service to all patients aged up to 21 part-fulfils a pledge made by the Labour Party, which in its electoral manifesto said that it will be providing all diabetes type 1 patients, irrespective of age, with the monitors within the next legislature. The pledge was also echoed by its rival Nationalist Party.

The Labour Party has also said it will eventually provide similar devices to patients with cardiac and respiratory conditions.