Irish Dental Union Calls for Immediate Changes
The Irish Dental Union has withdrawn its backing of the current State dental scheme and has called for immediate changes.
Chief executive, Fintan Hourihan, has written to the Minister for Health, James Reilly, stating that the union no longer has faith in the system and wants changes to be introduced as soon as possible. He also added that he believed that the system was failing patients and this is why the union has been forced to withdraw its support.
The union has highlighted 12 reasons why dentists are ceasing to support the Health Service Executive’s management of dental services, including cutbacks in essential treatments, failing to inform patients about their entitlement to dental care and failings in the reimbursement scheme for dentists.
The letter also reinforced dentist’s anger at an under-spend of 11.5 million Euros in the Dental Treatment Services Scheme last year, despite an increase in the number of patients covered by the scheme. Mr Hourihan has urged the health minister to add last year’s under-spend to this year’s budget.
Mr Hourihan has called for the Health Service Executive to bring in a new state dental scheme as soon as possible and added that a new contract should be focused on patients and given all the relevant resources.
There is a possibility that some dentists may stop treating patients in the scheme, although Mr Hourihan stressed that the union was not permitted to encourage dentists to leave the scheme.
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