Madam, – I know there are a lot of special interest groups, each with its own agenda, trying to make their concerns an election issue.
I would like to highlight the neglected branch of medicine.
Dental health has been allowed to deteriorate over the past few years. The following problems exist: 1. The stopping of all treatment (except the annual oral examination) under the PRSI dental scheme. 2. The restriction of treatment under the medical card dental scheme to emergency dental care. There are further concerns here in that the patient is restricted to a maximum of two fillings per year but can have the painful tooth extracted, should they exceed the limit. However, once the tooth or teeth are extracted the patient can not get a denture under the scheme. Just imagine the Irish smile by the time we get out of this recession. 3. The closure of clinics, the non-screening of children and long delays for patients due to the non-filling of critical vacancies in the public dental service. 4. The failure to fill the vacant chief dental officer post, meaning that there has been no development of oral health policy in Ireland.
In practice, I deal with the shortcomings of the Government policy every day. I would like to urge everybody who has been affected by these restrictions to make dental health an election issue.
Please raise any or all of the above points with the prospective public representatives when they call to the door. – Yours, etc,