Mayo people feeling the pain over dental treatment crux
A Mayo TD has highlighted the fact that significant numbers of people of all ages in the county are unable to access dental treatment.
Deputy Alan Dillon elaborated: 'We must ask why contracted dentists are withdrawing from the Dental Treatment Social Scheme (DTSS).
"Dentists in Mayo say the DTSS is outdated in its scope and that it is so burdened with bureaucracy that most of them would not accept the contract regardless of the fees being offered.
"They need to be consulted when it comes to reforming the scheme."
He asked Health Minister Stephen Donnelly what engagement his department has had with dentists to see what can be done to encourage them back into the DTSS.
In reply, the minister stated: "I will make two points specifically on the DTSS.
"The first is that the fee structure did not keep pace with inflation and we saw a lot of dentists leave the scheme as a result.
"There are issues related to the administrative burden of the scheme but they have been a factor for a long time.
"In response to that, we significantly increased the fees paid to dentists, by between 40% and 60% per item. We did that in a single year.
"Any dentist who chooses to leave the DTSS can do so, and dentists can also choose to rejoin it.
"When we discussed this recently, a TD gave an example of a constituent whom a dentist refused to treat under the DTSS and when the person came back some time later in agony, the dentist agreed to do the treatment privately.
"I do not believe that is acceptable behaviour from the dentist. The State has a role to play. We are significantly increasing fees.
"There are two parties to this arrangement. It is not acceptable for dentists to pull out of the scheme and refuse to treat patients under a publicly funded scheme but then to be willing to take their money some time later as private patients."
Deputy Dillon said there are similar examples in Mayo where elderly people had to look for appointments in Sligo to fix their dentures, which is completely unacceptable.
"On another point, the lack of access to dental treatment for young people is causing great difficulty for primary schoolchildren who are to be examined and treated by the HSE dental services in second, fourth and sixth class, before the age of 12.
"We are having significant problems with many checks coming after significant developmental milestones. It is a major issue. Additional supports must be put in place."