Dentist boycott of scheme leaves millions without care

JUST 150 dentists are still participating in the Government’s PRSI dental scheme, leaving more than one million patients without State-subsidised treatment, the Irish Dentist’s Association (IDA) claimed yesterday.

The IDA says that of 750 dentists originally on the PRSI panel, 600 were not working the scheme.

The dispute, running for more than two years, began when dentists lodged a claim for fee increases above the annual consumer price index increases allowed under the PRSI scheme contract.

Dentists argue the increases were necessary because inflation in health costs was running way above normal consumer price rises.

However, there was no progress on the claim and in March last year most of the 900 dentists operating the scheme introduced new fees in breach of their contracts.

In August, 2002, the Department Social Community and Family Affairs blacklisted all dentists charging more than the agreed rates and ceased to forward PRSI contributions for any treatment carried out.

As the row continued yesterday, the IDA’s Anthony Sweeney accused the minister and the department of collapsing the troubled scheme by refusing to agree new terms with dentists last summer.

Mr Sweeney said the 600 dentists who were not working the scheme had been de facto sacked by the minister.

However, Minister of Social Community and Family Affairs Mary Coughlan rejected this.

“What is happening is dentists have a contract with the department. They broke the contract by not participating in the scheme. In other words, they want private fees,” she said.

“If I have a scheme I cannot have a situation where the department and the consumer is not protected by going into the dentist and not knowing what they’re going to pay with different rates all over the country,” she said.

She also said up to 1,300 dentists were still participating in the scheme and that €17m had been spent on the scheme between July last year and this month.

Minister Coughlan said she had offered an independent review of the scheme to which the dentists had refused to agree.

“I cannot have a scheme whereby we can’t have some determination what exactly people are going to pay and what value for money they are going to get for their PRSI contributions,” she said.

But the IDA says more than one million workers who are paying their PRSI contributions are being forced to pay inflated prices for dental treatment, while the Government has saved an estimated €9m in dental subsidies.

Mr Sweeney said the IDA had informed the Government that the PRSI system was at breaking point more than six years ago.

“We told the minister’s predecessor that this service couldn’t hold any longer and that we couldn’t give the service we were contractually obliged to give without a diminution in standards,” he said.