HSE 'not communicating dental entitlements to medical card holders'

The Irish Dental Union (IDU) has today accused the HSE of not communicating to medical card patients what their entitlements are.

New figures show that the Health Service Executive spent almost €12m less on dental care for medical card patients last year than it had promised.

The Irish Dental Union has described the under-spend as an outrage and is calling on the Health Minister to launch an investigation into why this money was not spent.

CEO of the IDU, Fintan Hourihan, outlined some of the dental services which medical card holders can avail of free of charge.

"There's a free examination, there is up to two fillings a year in an emergency situation, and a number of other treatments including root canal treatment, dentures where emergency circumstances arise," he said.

"We have serious difficulty with the approach being taken by the HSE.

"We feel that … they have signally failed to communicate what the entitlements are for patients, and we think this is very cynical."