Mayo head of dental association wants ringfenced hospital beds for vulnerable patients

THE newly appointed Irish Dental Association (IDA) president, Mayo native Dr. Bridget Harrington-Barry, has called on government to ringfence acute hospital beds to ensure general anaesthetic services are provided for children and special care dental patients across the country.

This follows new data compiled by the IDA which shows there are 1,800 plus special care adults and children across Ireland who are on waiting lists to access public dental treatment under general anaesthetic, with half (49%) waiting 12 plus months for treatment.

More than a quarter (27.5%) of all 1,801 patients waiting for dental general anaesthetic are special care patients.

Children make up over half of all patients waiting for dental treatment under general anaesthetic. These waits occur during critical developmental years, increasing risks of pain, infections requiring the use of antibiotics, missed schooling and emergency department presentations.

The ringfencing proposal was last week endorsed by a report of the Joint Oireachtas Committee on Health, on a cross-party basis.

Dr. Harrington-Barry, from Castlebar, was recently appointed president of the Irish Dental Association, which held its annual conference this week.

She commented: “Following sustained difficulties in securing consistent access to capacity in my own clinic in University Hospital Galway, last year we ringfenced a service for my paediatric special care patients.

“The initiative has been a major success, and we have since not been required to cancel paediatric special care procedures.

“This new data shows that we urgently need to ringfence beds across the country to combat special care waiting lists. We also need to extend the initiative to include vulnerable adult patients.

“It is vital we ensure that patients with additional needs are treated with the dignity they deserve.”

She continued: “As highlighted by the dramatic drop in dental surgeons employed by the HSE since 2005, we would also like to see additional investment in the recruitment and training of dentists. By contrast, the number of junior doctors (NCHDs) has risen by 52% between 2012 and 2021, consultants by 44%, admin staff by 37% and nurses by 20%.

“Why has public service dentistry been singled out and been utterly devastated as a service when the number of dental patients has increased by over 25% in the past twenty years?”