Gareth Scahill (Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I welcome the Minister of State to the Chamber today to answer questions on behalf of the Government. First and foremost, I congratulate him on his appointment. I also congratulate him on Galway’s win over New York at the weekend. Thankfully, he is here today and not in two weeks’ time, when Roscommon and Galway will be playing in the semi-final, or he might not be as accommodating to me.

I also acknowledge the Minister, Deputy Carroll MacNeill, with this Commencement matter, as well as for meeting with me recently with regard to the university hospital in Roscommon and the provision for the rehabilitation unit and for the refurbishment of the radiology unit. I hope that my opinion and the opinions I reflect of the people of Roscommon will be reflected in future planning by her Department.

The issue I raise today is with regard to the lack of available dentists accepting medical cards nationwide. While I was a member of the regional health forum in the west, I raised this issue and the answer I received was not sufficient, considering the number of people nationwide affected by it. The question I asked of the regional health forum was whether the HSE could confirm which dentists in Roscommon were taking medical card patients and what the accepted waiting period for an appointment was. I was referred to the fact that four dentists in County Roscommon are accepting medical card patients. However, the note also stated that some dental practices are advising that they are at capacity and are unable to take new patients. This is leading to these people being referred to dentists in other counties and is adding considerable time to the journeys of those patients.

Many years of neglect transformed what was a poor service into a state of crisis within that sector. We are dealing with an emergency where patients simply cannot be seen or patients have to travel half the length of the country to get another dentist to see them. A total of 810 dentists are signed up to the dental treatment service scheme but, according to the media, only about 600 of those are active. The lack of availability has had a dramatic effect on people’s treatment. It means they cannot access routine treatments and they are presenting very late. They are often in a lot of pain with swelling and, inevitably, teeth are having to be extracted. Dentists, in turn, are frustrated by the limited care they can provide to medical card holders because they are limited on the number of fillings they can provide under the scheme. It is a disincentive to dentists who do not want to have to resort to extractions that that is the only treatment open to them in the end. It would be like patients going to a GP and the only option for treatment they were given was amputation.

We need more dentists and we need to be able to provide more services to patients. The dental treatment scheme should be a demand-led scheme, not a budget-led scheme. Nobody can have good general health if they do not have good oral health. People are paying the price. The most vulnerable, the people who need help from the State the most, are the ones being ignored.

When will the next dental strategy be formulated to ensure we have enough dentists to meet the demand nationally for medical card holders? Can the Minister prioritise this issue for the large number of people affected by this in the Roscommon-Galway constituency, the west of Ireland and nationally?