Cork TD warns medical card dentist visit figures are 'worrying'

The number of Cork dentists seeing medical card patients under the Dental Treatment Services Scheme (DTSS), which dropped from 239 to 188 between 2023 and 2024, has increased slightly to 192, the HSE has said.

In response to a parliamentary question from Sinn Féin TD for Cork South Central Donnchadh Ó Laoghaire about how many of these are actually taking new patients, a HSE spokesperson said: “Unfortunately, it is very difficult for the HSE to ascertain how many dentists are actually seeing new medical card patients in any given period of time.

“The number of dentists taking on new patients is likely to change regularly. However, the number of phone calls that HSE dental services are receiving from medical card patients trying to access dental care under the scheme seems to have reduced recently.

“Access to dental care for medical card patients under the scheme is still a significant issue.

“Patients may have to travel further for treatment or wait longer for an appointment.

“However, given the reduced queries, it would appear the situation in Cork has stabilised with a slight improvement.”

Mr Ó Laoghaire said: “These figures, even if there is a slight improvement, are very worrying. In the longer run, we’re significantly down on a number of years ago.

“We are approaching a situation where people on medical cards will not be able to get a dentist. Huge swathes of the city and county have none. No dentist in Carrigaline accepts them, a town of 20,000 people.

“It is evident that the scheme is completely collapsing. The DTSS is not working. Fintan Hourihan, the chief executive of the Irish Dental Association, said the low numbers of dentists participating in DTSS ‘reflects a vote of no confidence in this scheme’, saying: ‘The current scheme isn’t working for dentists, patients, or the HSE.’”

He added: “The scheme has rules set by the HSE, it doesn’t just entitle you to any dental treatment. There are limits, such as you can only get two fillings a year, but there’s no limit on tooth extractions. Unfortunately, that’s down to entirely budgetary reasons, it’s more expensive to fill a tooth than to extract the tooth, and the scheme directs funding to the least expensive treatments.”