Funding cutbacks in the dental scheme for medical card holders will result in hundreds of thousands of patients being denied vital treatments, dentists have warned.
The Irish Dental Association (IDA) said today cuts of up to €40 million in Health Service Executive funding for the medical card scheme, announced in the last budget, will lead to more than half a million fewer treatments for medical card holders, children and special needs patients.
The IDA, which represents more than 2,000 dentists, said the cutbacks amounted to a “wholesale rationing” of treatments and would push the state of dental services in Ireland back decades.
Under the new arrangements, which are due to start next month, the budget for the publicly funded for the Dental Treatment Services Scheme (DTSS), which allows medical card holders avail of a range of basic dental care, is to be reduced from €86 million in 2009 to €64 million this year.
At a press briefing in Dublin today to highlight the impact of the cutbacks, the IDA said the cutbacks combined with the projected rise in medical card holders would result in 30 per cent fewer dental treatments.
In practice, this meant 181,000 less fillings, 93,600 less check-ups, 32,000 less extractions and 12,300 less denture treatments per year, it said.
The IDA said the cuts would result in thousands of card holders with tooth decay now being offered the option of extraction or an antibiotic rather than a filling, contrary to clinical norms.
IDA chief executive Fintan Hourihan said if the HSE proceeds with these cutbacks the dental health of hundreds of thousands of people will be damaged while the dental health of the nation will be set back by decades.
“As it is the system is barely limping along. These new cuts are akin to the introduction of rationing,” Mr Hourihan said.
“Not for the first time the most vulnerable in our society will suffer most and these measures will widen the divide between the less well off and those who can afford to be treated privately,” he said.
The association also warned patients may be forced to resort to legal action to force the State to provide appropriate care.
