Department defends commitment to oral health policy despite no date for implementation plan
The dental association found last year 25% of private practices are not taking in new patients. This is because their workload is too high already.
The Department of Health has defended its record on dental care in the wake of serious concerns raised by the Irish Dental Association around waiting lists for children and adults as well as dentist shortages.
Another key concern raised was the lack of an implementation plan for a 2019 oral health policy called . This is despite commitments last June that it was being finalised at that point.
A spokeswoman for the department said: “The Government is committed to reforming oral healthcare services through the implementation of the national oral health policy, .”
Its two main goals of providing supports for everyone to have healthy teeth and reducing oral health inequalities are being worked on.
The latter, she said, is about “enabling vulnerable people to access oral healthcare and improve their oral health".
However, she did not respond to a query on when the implementation plan for this will be published.
In June last year, health minister Jennifer Carroll MacNeill told the Dáil: “The implementation plan for the first phase of policy rollout to end-2027 is being finalised by my department and the HSE, following targeted consultation in Q3 2024."
Instead, the spokeswoman said the HSE has been allocated additional funding “to enable progress” on this.
“The department meets with the HSE on an ongoing basis to understand and address the challenges in providing public oral healthcare services,” she said.
New services to be provided will be prevention-focused for all ages, she added.
The dental association found last year 25% of private practices are not taking in new patients. This is because their workload is too high already.
In the public dental service, Cork and Kerry have 13 senior dental surgeons working full-time or part-time across the equivalent of 9.33 roles for vulnerable people. This includes children with disabilities who need general anaesthetic during treatment.
IDA CEO Fintan Hourihan said: “Given the population of Cork and Kerry, they’re woefully understaffed.”
He raised concerns this is reflected in other areas, saying the public services are heavily oversubscribed with large numbers of patients everywhere.
Orthodontic waiting lists for children, for example, can reach six years, IDA analysis found.
Over 1.5m people now have a medical card, giving adults free access to certain dental services.
The department spokeswoman pointed to additional budget funding last year for recruitment to the public service. This will allow the HSE to hire the equivalent of an extra 15 full-time dentists around the country, she said.
The HSE is “currently progressing” this, she said.
New research from last year and 2023, led by the Health Research Board, is also feeding into the policy, she added.
The department is working with the Department of Climate, Energy, and the Environment colleagues on improving sustainability in dental services, she said.
- Niamh Griffin is the Health Correspondent for the
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