‘This policy of blocking basic care is absolutely scandalous, it is wrong’
However, due to controversial HSE cutbacks, the 40-year-old says that for the past eight weeks she has been forced to tell them the care they need is no longer available.
As a result of a HSE circular sent to all dentists in Ireland on April 28, medical card patients cannot receive care unless it is considered an emergency case – a category with no set definition.
In addition, all dentists cannot now perform more than two fillings on a patient under the medical card system. Like hundreds of other members of her profession, Ms Twomey believes the policy is forcing the most vulnerable people in society to have to go without vital medical care because they cannot afford it from their private income and the state has taken any other option away.
She wants someone to tell her how she can inform a cancer patient, a man with Down Syndrome or a woman who has spent a number of months in a psychiatric hospital that their dentist is barred from “even washing their teeth”.
“About half of my patients use medical cards. They are already very disadvantaged, they are not pretending, and I have to tell them they can’t access what is a constitutional right,” she said.
“I have a young man of 32 with Down Syndrome who needs gum treatment.
“This previously was a straight forward procedure of obtaining approval for this treatment.
“However, I had to explain to his carer that this was no longer the case and that there was a strong possibility of him being turned down this treatment.
“I have young woman suffering from major psychiatric illness who has been refused gum treatment by the HSE. This is despite the fact that she has spent the last six months in a psychiatric hospital.
“Her teeth were fine before admission but now she needs six fillings and gum treatment, and according to the new guidelines I can only do two fillings with no provision for her swollen bleeding gums.
“There are cancer patients who need urgent dental care before they can start a form of cancer treatment called bisphosphonate therapy, but they now have to wait for approval to come through from the HSE.
“What is happening is absolutely scandalous, it is wrong, and we need to have this policy of blocking basic care removed immediately,” she insisted.
Cork East Labour TD Sean Sherlock has urged the Department of Health to take on board the realities facing individual affected by the hidden health service crisis.
Ms Twomey said: “We’ll sit down with the HSE, we’ll discuss what can be cut, but not this. This is too much,” she said.
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