Alert over lack of dentists offering medical card services in Cork

A loss of 95 medical card dentists in Cork since 2019 is “completely unacceptable” and leaving lower income families without access to dental treatment, a Cork TD has said.

The HSE Primary Care Dental Service provides dental treatment to eligible children, medical card holders, adults and children with special needs and others in the care of the HSE at various locations throughout Cork and Kerry. Children under 16 years of age are treated in HSE dental clinics and adults are treated by private dental practitioners contracted to the Health Services under the Dental Treatment Services Scheme (DTSS).

In 2019, there were 107 DTSS dentists in Cork South Lee, 113 in North Lee, 29 in West Cork and 38 in North Cork – a total of 287 dentists.

This dropped to 282 in 2020, 275 in 2021, 262 in 2022, 246 in 2023 and then there was a significant drop to 188 in 2024. In 2024, there were 60 DTSS dentists in South Lee, 81 in North Lee, 19 in West Cork and 28 in North Cork.

As of May 2025, the figures had increased slightly to 192, with an increase to 63 DTSS dentists in South Lee and 29 in North Cork, though there remained 81 in North Lee and 19 in West Cork.

Sinn Féin TD for Cork North Central, Thomas Gould, to whom the data was provided, said that a 33% reduction in dentists providing medical card services in Cork is totally unacceptable and leaving people without access to dental care.

He told The Echo: “These shocking figures show the reality for those on the ground who need dental services in Cork. These are vulnerable people and they are being denied access to healthcare.

“I have been contacted by constituents who have had to travel from Mallow into Cork city to access dental services. They are forced to take lifts from friends or use public transport when they don’t drive. This is leaving people without any real access to dental treatment.

“The Dental Treatment Services Scheme is essential for older people and low-income families to make sure they can get access to oral healthcare. But now it is collapsing as dentists withdraw at a rate of knots because the contract is not fit for purpose.” 

Mr Gould explained: “Dentists on the scheme cannot cover their costs and now medical card holders cannot access any treatment. As it stands, the scheme is supervised negligence – you can have as many extractions as you need, but only two fillings, which leads to tooth loss instead of saving teeth.

“The Minister needs to work with dentists to get dentists back, to fix the fees on the scheme, and to modernise the contract to open up preventative treatments available to public patients.”