Sir - According to this morning's papers (January 15th) sufferers from toothache or other dental emergencies may now only be treated for these once a year without going through official channels if they come under the health scheme. This dotty bit of penny-pinching bureaucracy brings me back over fifty years to when I was medical officer to the North Wicklow Local Defence Force.
During training I often had to treat injured personnel using our own practice equipment which was difficult to replace at times due to Emergency shortages. I wrote to the Department of Defence asking if I could get a supply of dressings and other material. When the reply came some two weeks later I gaped at it for it informed me that "In the event of an emergency medical supplies will be dispatched to medical officers by the Command Chemist."
I can imagine the comments of Volunteer Joe Soap lying on Bray Head in the middle of a January night with cuts and bruises if I said to him, "Just lie there, Soap, until I can write to the Command Chemist for something to stop you bleeding and relieve the pain in your broken arm." In the event we were able to get dressings using the Comforts Fund.
I wonder does the Minister or Civil Servant responsible for the one emergency a year ruling ration his or her own urgent dental treatment to one a year. - Yours, etc., .,
11 Proby Square, Blackrock, Dublin.