Specialist facial care ends over funding

LACK of funding has forced doctors in Cork to stop a unique treatment programme where patients who lost facial parts to tumours were able to have their faces rebuilt.

Cork is the only city in Ireland providing an integrated service which combines medical and dental expertise.

But patients from the south may be forced to go to Britain for prosthetics treatment if the Cork University Hospital (CUH) -based service does not secure funding to put it on a permanent footing.

Patients whose treatment has already begun will continue to be treated, said Dr Finbarr Allen, a consultant in restorative dentistry at Cork University Dental School and Hospital.

But he said he has stopped taking new patients. A team of doctors and dentists has been providing a complete one-stop shop treatment service at CUH for the last three years for people who had lost facial parts.

Specialities including plastic surgery, maxillofacial surgery, restorative dentistry, radiation and speech and language therapy, were provided at the one centre.

A maxiollfacial technician from Britain would visit CUH every six weeks to take impressions of the area of a patients’ face which needed reconstruction.

A silicone prosthesis would then be made to match patients’ skin tones before being fitted in Cork.

The team was able to replace ears, noses, eyes, parts of the upper and lower jaws and teeth artificially. Funding of up to e1 million for a consultant and a number of junior staff has to be secured to ensure the service can continue.

A plan for the future of the service was submitted to the then Southern Health Board 18 months ago.

But there is still no sign of funding being provided. If the service was put on a permanent footing, it would benefit not just cancer patients, but those who have lost facial parts in accidents or because of a congenital birth defect.

“The patients we have seen have been very grateful,” Dr Allen said.

“I would be very unhappy that patients would now have to go to Britain for this service as all the models now for managing cancer indicate people should have facilities close to home.

“Care can perhaps be co-ordinated from a major centre but patients should have access to support services more locally than having to go to England.”

Twenty five people have been treated at the centre since the programme began.

“That seems a relatively small number but often people will require between 10 and 30 visits so they consume a lot of time,” he said.

The Health Service Executive Southern Area said a plan for the service has been forwarded to the Department of Health and Children.

“The next stage in the process is the submission of a consultant post application form to the National Hospitals Office,” a spokesperson said.