Dentists offer extra clinics to help treat medical card holders

Private and public dentists are offering to hold evening and weekend clinics in a bid to ease the crisis facing medical card patients who are finding it difficult to get treatment.

There are only 810 dentists listed as participating in the scheme countrywide, with just 600 of those active.

The Irish Dental Association (IDA) has proposed an interim emergency scheme under which HSE dental clinics would be opened at night and weekends, allowing public and private dentists to treat medical card patients caught in a backlog, the Oireachtas Health Committee was told yesterday.

The organisation’s chief executive Fintan Hourihan said it is awaiting a response from the HSE.

Asked if it is considering the proposal, a spokesperson for the HSE said: “The HSE welcomes the proposal and will discuss the initiative, which may enable additional short-term dental access to be provided to medical card holders.

“The feasibility and initiation of such an initiative will require consultation and planning, the timeline for which is not available at present.”

Mr Hourihan said that in 2014, there were 1,600 dentists signed up to treat medical card holders, but many have dropped out of providing the service and the situation has descended into chaos.

“There was a small rise in numbers of treatments provided after increased payments were made to dentists last year, but barely one in four dentists participates in this scheme and the number of patients seen is 35pc less than in 2014,” he added.

Mr Hourihan said dentists are using their private income to subsidise the scheme, and unlike GPs they get no subsidies towards operating costs.

However, he said economics alone are not the issue.

Under the scheme, dentists get around 50pc to 60pc of what they would receive from a private fee.

Dentists are frustrated by the ­limited care they can provide to medical card holders, as there is a limit on the number of fillings they can provide under the scheme.

It is a disincentive to dentists who do not want to have to resort to extractions as the only treatment left.

It is like a patient going to a GP and being told the only treatment they can provide is amputation, Mr Hourihan said.

The dentists want a new scheme to be drawn up and are available for talks with the Department of Health.

Dr Caroline Robins, a dentist in Carlow, said: “Just because the patient has a medical card, my hands are tied behind my back. It is so demoralising.”

Dr Will Rymer, a dentist in Tipperary, said young dentists have no desire to work in the scheme because of the restrictions put on them.

“You are constantly firefighting and not getting to practise your profession,” he said. “Patients are falling between the cracks. They do not have people to advocate for them.”

The IDA said successive year-on-year polls showed over 90pc of members want to see a state scheme to assist access for lower-income groups to dental care.

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