Healthcare Policy Seanad Éireann — 2026-06-17 ============================================================ Nessa Cosgrove (LAB), Labour Panel Gabhaim buíochas leis an gCathaoirleach agus cuirim fáilte roimh an Aire Stáit. I will raise this today because it is very personal to myself. I have osteoarthritis in both my knees. It has been gradually getting worse. I will give some figures about it. More than 577,800 people are living in Ireland with chronic joint pain and restricted movement as a result of osteoarthritis. People living with osteoarthritis experience a much poorer quality of life than those without. I have unfortunately learned this. I was late even coming over here and I was struggling to run. Irish people living with osteoarthritis are four times more likely to have three or more chronic conditions along with their arthritis. Due to the ageing population, we expect to see this number growing by between 20% and 30% by 2050. In my case, it is hereditary. Both my parents had osteoarthritis and I can see, first hand, how it reduces your ability to move. That is the whole point I am making today. Historically, the medical response to osteoarthritis has been to rely on surgical interventions such as knee and hip replacements. Apart from the trauma that any surgery inflicts on patients, it is an expensive practice, costing the health service around €112 million per year. Recently, it was great to attend a policy briefing in the audiovisual room that outlined an alternative response to osteoarthritis and the benefits of moving to supervised group education and exercise as a first-line treatment for people experiencing knee and hip osteoarthritis. For example, in my case, when I was diagnosed as having it, I had to get an MRI to say I have osteoarthritis and there was no treatment plan besides just waiting for it to get worse. I have a wonderful GP but there was no referral to physio. There was no emphasis on alternative methods. It was basically, "You know what? You are going to have to wait until it gets worse and then you will get a knee replacement", or else look at injections. It was wonderful to go to this programme, which is called the Good Life with osteoArthritis Denmark, GLA:D, programme. It was brought to Ireland with the help of grant aid from the Health Research Board. It is through the University of Limerick that the programme is administered in the Irish health system. The GLA:D programme has been embraced by professionals, with over 265 GLA:D-certified physiotherapists delivering twice weekly, eight-week programmes across 45 healthcare settings. It is being delivered in 16 counties in Ireland and over 1,000 patients have benefited from the approach, which treats the condition in a similar way to other chronic conditions, using education and lifestyle choices, such as exercise, to alleviate the symptoms and the impact of the condition. As I said, surgery should be the last resort and it should be avoided at all costs. Research, particularly in Denmark, states that several countries have shown that the implementation of a group education and exercise programme has resulted in a delaying or even total avoidance of surgery among some sufferers. Osteoarthritis is as much a chronic condition as type 2 diabetes, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, COPD, asthma and cardiovascular illnesses such as heart disease. Each of these conditions is recognised under the chronic disease management programme, CDMP, and are treated, where possible, in the first instance through education and lifestyle and then with medication. The CDMP - I know the Minister of State knows this - entails six-month medical reviews, including consultation with a practice nurse, blood tests and follow-up GP visits. It would be enormously beneficial to those living with osteoarthritis to benefit from being included as part of the CDMP and that we would have a national strategy where, as soon as you get diagnosed or identify that you have osteoarthritis, a full treatment plan is put in place concentrating on lifestyle, education and physiotherapy, which is done in primary care settings. Will the Minister of State look at including osteoarthritis in the CDMP with an update on treatment, and look at alternatives for the treatment of osteoarthritis? --- Source: Houses of the Oireachtas. Licensed under CC BY 4.0 (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/). The Official Report is revised after first publication; the fetch timestamp below identifies the version quoted. Record URI: https://data.oireachtas.ie/akn/ie/debateRecord/seanad/2026-06-17/debate/main Retrieved: 2026-08-14T04:55:04+00:00 Sitting date: 2026-06-17