Government can't ignore crisis in dental care for Mayo patients
MAYO Sinn Féin TD Rose Conway-Walsh has again urged the Minister for Health to resolve the ongoing appalling situation of medical card holders in Mayo not being able to access essential dental treatment.
Every week her constituency offices receive calls from people who need dental treatment but can't find a dentist.
Deputy Conway-Walsh said: “The Dental Treatment Services Scheme (DTSS) is a contract between dentists and the government to supply essential dental treatment to medical card holders.
“In a statement to the Oireachtas Health Committee in May 2024, Irish Dental Association (IDA) CEO Fintan Hourihan said that the government has a central role to play in enabling greater access to dental services, but it has not given the urgency or priority needed to address the shortcomings of the service.
“The IDA says that the dental care sector is severely challenged by a lack of strategic planning at government level, which has led to huge difficulties in getting additional qualified dentists, dental nurses and support staff.”
She continued: “I support the Dental Association’s call for a new dental treatment services scheme to be introduced and for a sustainable contract to be put in place.
“In the last couple of years, a large number of dentists have opted out of the DTSS and many new dental practices are not opting into the scheme.
“In 2011, when Fine Gael came to power, there were 63 DTSS contractors (dentists who take medical card patients) in County Mayo. Now, it is difficult to find any.
“Only about 600 of the IDA’s membership of 1,800 are now participating in the medical card scheme. That is the equivalent of one dentist per 2,500 eligible patients. That is completely unsustainable.”
Deputy Conway-Walsh added: “My constituency offices in Ballina and Belmullet receive calls and queries on a weekly basis from medical card holders who require urgent dental treatment but cannot find a dentist to take them.
“People should not have to go to a politician when they need a dentist. Nor should they have to go to emergency departments, which are already operating beyond capacity.
“The DTSS is meant to entitle those who need it to free basic public dental services. This is an empty entitlement if the services simply aren’t available.
““We need a new, ambitious strategic plan for dentistry. That must include workforce planning and a significant increase in the number of dentists we are training.
“In Sinn Féin’s alternative budget, we proposed a substantial increase in the number of dentists in training by 35%, or 60 additional students. And that must be just a first step.
“We have also proposed reversing the damage done by successive government, through direct employment of more dentists to provide dental care for public patients.”