Sign in. It’s quick, free and it’s up to you.
An account is an optional way to support the work we do. Find out more.
Updated 13.20
HEALTH MINISTER LEO Varadkar has dismissed claims made this morning by the Irish Dental Association (IDA) that as many as 10,000 children under the age of 15 are being hospitalised in Ireland each year to have teeth extracted under general anaesthetic.
Those figures are apparently up to five times higher than those seen in the UK.
Speaking on RTE’s Morning Ireland Varadkar said that “initial information” indicates that the IDA’s figures are incorrect.
“The IDA is not to be confused with an academic department or the dental council,” he said.
I’m informed by the HSE and the chief dental officer that the IDA is incorrect, that there are 3,600 such cases in Ireland, not 10,000 and that includes day cases and may even be an over-estimate.
Having said that I’m going to ask the chief dental officer to look into these claims, but initial information is that they’re incorrect.
Also the most recent information from the FAACT (Fluoride and Caring for Children’s Teeth) study indicates that child oral health in Ireland is actually improving. It’s good by international standards and the number of cavities is going down.
The HSE has said this afternoon that it “refutes the suggestion by the IDA that approximately 10,000 children currently receive general anaesthetic for dental extractions”.
“Dental health in children in Ireland is quite good,” the executive said in a statement, while reiterating the figure of 3,600 per annum given by Varadkar.
The FACCT survey’s first results just published show a substantial improvement since 2002 when the previous survey was undertaken which is above the international norm.
Notwithstanding, the HSE has already undertaken to commence a national audit on general anaesthetic waiting lists for children and for those with special care and special needs.
Every child under 16 years of age is entitled to access care through emergency clinics in the public health system throughout the country.
The HSE is commencing a pilot scheme for 0-3 year-old children (who are deemed a vulnerable group in relation to dental care) to assess what advice should be given to parents regarding diets and tooth brushing and best care of their teeth.
Waiting times for young children with chronic dental infections can be as long as 12 months according to the IDA.
The association has described the figures it released as “a national disgrace” and an indictment of the current and previous governments’ ‘slash and burn’ approach to oral health policy.
In its statement the HSE urges the IDA to “revoke its correspondence of April 2014 to its members directing them not to forward important statistics to the HSE (including attendance and waiting lists of children) which would facilitate the HSE to strategically address those vulnerable areas of the country requiring more target resources”.
Earlier
Speaking in advance of the Association’s annual seminar for dentists working in the HSE, IDA president Anne Twomey said that 95% of these cases would be avoidable if treated earlier.
“Why are thousands of our young people undergoing the trauma of hospitalisation for multiple dental extractions?” she said.
The reason they weren’t is because of Government cuts to family dental supports since 2010, the constant undermining of what had been a highly effective schools screening service and the fact that too many of our young people have a poor diet containing too much sugar.
Twomey has urged the HSE to urgently act with regard to dental waiting lists, before a ‘tragedy occurs’.
“The closure of the walk-in clinic in St James’s Hospital in Dublin means waiting lists for general anaesthetic services in Dublin, Wicklow and Kildare are 12 months,” Twomey said.
Waiting periods around the country are typically six to nine months.
We know there are currently over 3,000 children awaiting general anaesthetic services and some of these have been waiting up to a year.
The issue is compounded by the fact that dental cases are not included on hospital priority lists.
Put simply this means that a hospital is penalised if a child is forced to wait longer than six months for other procedures, but not dental.
“Our concern is that general anaesthetic services for dentistry will not become a priority until a child has a serious outcome from dental infection,” Twomey added.
Originally published 8.57am
To embed this post, copy the code below on your site
The husband did his very best and ut must have been awful seeing his wife deteriorate but the hosputal unable to cope. Appalling.
Makes me mad that hospital excellence isn’t the prior government priority.
The only priority of this government is to try and fool us all in a couple of years and get back into power
The Government is destroying the public health care system or letting it self destruct. They want the health care for profit. The people should be under no illusion that this will mean even less care for more money. Look at what privation has done to the system in the Netherlands. …..it destroyed it, the country went from one of the most humane efficient systems to one where people are paying enormous sums to private companies for the least cover required by law.
“Dr Peter Boylan says it’s well recognised that Ireland has the lowest number of consultants per head of population in the OECD”. I’d hazard a guess earnings are at the very top levels of the OECD. Pay less, employ more?
Shock horror. Yup, top 2/3 well paid in the OECD even after recent cuts, and twice the pay of uk equivalents. http://www.irishtimes.com/news/health/irish-hospital-consultants-among-highest-paid-in-the-world-1.1850847
Hospitals are on five day week. Go in Friday wait till Monday for attention.
Consultant salaries have already been cut drastically. The result? There’s a mass shortage as consultants emigrate to North America and Australia for far better pay and conditions.
Not a very smart comment about reducing pay when they can’t recruit consultants (or registrars) to work in these jobs in the first place.
If we could only have centres of fully resourced barely adequate competence instead of centres of excellence that would be a good start. Clearly much more could have been done if the resources were there but we have other priorities in Ireland.
She died because she was in the wrong place from day one, a regional hospital without the expertise, in form of consultants, to recognise and treat her condition effectively before it became irreversible. Shocking.
No, it’s a consequence of hundreds of years of religious oppression and lack of a proper, full abortion legislation.
Daniel with a comment like that you must be trolling
This tragic case had nothing to do with abortion.
You knob.wrong case
Pro-choice think has reached a new high.
And around and around and around we go.! We know whats wrong but we do not know how to fix it. And women die and will continue to die,,,,,,
And men Mary, lack of resources etc is not gender specific.
Bad nursing and medical oversight has more to do with it. This new excuse, which may be valid, seems however to be designed to protect the staff on duty in the ward at the time of the lady’s fatal illness and excuse the HSE management.
That nurse tried her best to say patient needed icu but doctors dont care bout nurses opinions
Not to worry, thaw case will probably be used as an excuse to move maternity services out of Sligo hospital now to Galway or Derry or the moon.
Sad but true Carina.
I think using this case to make a point for more consultants is insensitive in the extreme. Our doctors are highly trained and should have been able to make the calls here. It shouldn’t have needed a consultant (who decided to go off to a clinic…).
A better call would be for the consultants to work in line with a 24x7x365 health service rather than suiting themselves to short days, long weekends and private appointments using public infrastructure. The outcome of those changes would not be ‘debatable’.
Lemon,
It’s strange that you think a consultant who is rostered to work in a clinic outside the hospital is in some way ‘suiting himself’
There aren’t enough consultants to staff a 24/7 roster.
There aren’t enough registrars, or SHOs, or interns either for that matter.
All doctors in ireland work far and away in excess of our contracted hours, in underresourced services stretched too thinly to provide the level of care we would like.
Nonsense about people suiting themselves (who exactly would have covered that clinic?) is unhelpful, and that antagonistic attitude is a big part of why the shortage of medical manpower exists.
Corrigan you dope!
have your say