3,400 children waiting to see orthodontist
Thursday September 02 2010
THERE are over 3,400 children the HSE South region who are waiting for orthodontic assessment and the "excuse of a staff moratorium and a delay in appointing a new consultant orthodontist simply will not wash".
Those are the words of Senator Jerry Buttimer (FG) who this week said children in the Cork area are clearly being neglected and discriminated against as they are waiting one year to have their assessment, compared to the 168 children waiting in the HSE North East — where children are seen in approximately 10 weeks.
"With a total of 9,601 children awaiting assessment nationally, children in the south make up a whopping 36% of the total waiting list. This is completely unacceptable. There are 3,455 children in Cork and the HSE South waiting for assessment," said Mr Buttimer.
"There are two prominent Government Ministers in Cork and a Green Party Senator who is never off the airwaves, yet our children and their oral health have been allowed to drop to the bottom of the priority list where this failed Government is concerned," said Buttimer.
He said Fine Gael recently highlighted how dental experts challenged what they see as an indefensible HSE memo telling them not to fill children's baby teeth as a means of scaling back on scarce resources.
In response to Senator Buttimer's comments, a HSE spokesperson said that due to the sudden death of a consultant orthodontist late last year a large number of clients who had commenced treatment in the South Lee and West Cork areas had to be accommodated by the remaining clinicians in the Cork and Kerry area.
"The immediate priority over the last six months has been to ensure the safe and effective transfer of these clients to appropriately qualified orthodontic clinicians," said hte spokesperson. "This has had an unfortunate and unavoidable impact on waiting times in this area."
Marie Cooke, consultant orthodontist for North Lee and Kerry, has provided clinical support and advice in the reorganisation of the specialists orthodontists to whose caseloads these clients are being transferred.
However, the HSE spokesperson also said that four newly qualified specialist orthodontists sponsored by the HSE have recently been appointed in Cork and Kerry.
"This has greatly assisted with the management of the treatment transfers, in addition to the input of the two existing specialist orthodontists and significant impact has been made on current waiting lists and times," said the HSE spokesperson.
Also, a replacement consultant orthodontist, David Hegarty, was appointed last May and this is expected to make inroads into the current waiting lists.
- MARIA HERLIHY MHERLIHY@CORKMAN.IE
