Seanad debates
Tuesday, 13 May 2003
Health Service: Statements.
I accept that we have a difficulty in the area of orthodontics. We have seen the guidelines from the Department that, in order to qualify, people must have 10 mm malocclusion. There are sad cases of people who have 8 mm or 9 mm malocclusion and do not meet the criterion. They are told there is no service for them. That has to be changed immediately. Obviously we need more and more people to be trained in the area of orthodontics and hopefully those people will spend some time working in Ireland. My information is that many people leave the country as soon as they have qualified to find work in Great Britain or some other European country. That is very difficult for a health board because staff are not available.
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