TD slams staffing levels for local school dental scheme
Local Sinn Féin TD Brian Stanley has claimed that the Laois /Offaly School Dental Scheme is "chronically understaffed”.
Deputy Stanley says that information he received recently from the HSE shows that the “staffing of the scheme is less than half of the minimum required for it to function properly.’’
“Currently there are 3 full time and 1 part time dentists, where there should be a minimum of 7 full time. There are 2 full time and 1 part time positions vacant at present and a further fulltime dentist has been on long term leave since the start of the year," he said.
The shortage of dentistry staff working directly within the HSE system in the Constituency is having a detrimental effect on the oral health of children at Primary and Secondary School level, he added.
“As I outlined earlier in the year, children are being seen by a dentist for the first time when they are more than halfway through secondary school, whereas they should be seen in fourth, fifth and sixth class in Primary School. In April there were 7,000 children in Laois and 3,338 in Offaly waiting for their first dental screening."
Stanley argued that the cause of this crisis is the freeze in recruitment of frontline positions which was directed by Government last Autumn.
"Now that the embargo has been lifted, the HSE now inform me that a new recruitment campaign is to be advertised this month.
"They also have commenced two evening sessions per week in Portlaoise for dental services to children on the school waiting list in Laois and two extra daytime sessions per week in Tullamore to deal with the backlog there. While these are welcome developments, it is not near enough to clear the backlog of thousands of children still awaiting screening and treatment," he said.
“What is clearly needed is for more training places to be created for student dentists. When people have gained their qualifications, they need to be offered realistic and long-term employment within in the public dental system. Failure to do this will mean that the School Dental Scheme will limp along for years to come.”