Oireachtas Joint and Select Committees
Wednesday, 5 July 2023
Joint Oireachtas Committee on Health
Irish Dental Association Strategic Workforce Plan: Irish Dental Association
Mr. Fintan Hourihan:
I will turn to Dr. Robins to elaborate on the second question about what the consequences are. Since 1994, official policy has been that school screening should happen at three different intervals before the age of 12. Typically, it used to mean in second, fourth and sixth class. Based on the Department of Education's own statistics, we understand that there are over 200,000 children in second, fourth and sixth class ages. Last year, fewer than 100,000 were seen. Within that group of 100,000 children, some were being seen in second level so far less than 50% of those who should have been seen were actually seen by the school screening service. I will turn to Dr. Robins to elaborate what that means regarding delayed diagnosis and treatment of patients.
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