Dinny McGinley
Question:333 Mr. McGinley asked the Minister for Health and Children the steps being taken to improve the orthodontic services available in the north-west and Donegal. [24287/01]
Written Answers. - Orthodontic Service.
The provision of orthodontic treatment to patients in the north-west and Donegal is the statutory responsibility of the North-Western Health Board – NWHB – in the first instance.
At the invitation of my Department, a group representative of health board management and consultant orthodontists reviewed the orthodontic services. The objective of this review was to ensure equity in the provision of orthodontic treatment throughout the health boards. Following this review structural changes are being introduced in the orthodontic services. These changes include the creation of the grade of specialist in orthodontics, the development of specialist training programmes and the creation of a grade of auxiliary dental worker to work in the orthodontic area.
However, it will be some time before these structural changes impact significantly on service levels. Consequently, I asked health boards to develop proposals to make an immediate significant impact on their waiting lists. An additional investment of £5.3 million – 6.729 million – has been approved for orthodontic services this year, of which £3.7 million – 4.698 million – is to fund an initiative on orthodontic waiting lists. The NWHB has been allocated an additional £215,000 – 273,000 – this year for orthodontic services, of which £140,000 – 177,000 – was for the orthodontic initiative. Under the initiative, the board propose to recruit additional staff, engage the services of private practitioners to treat patients and validate its waiting lists.
The chief executive officer of the board has informed me that two orthodontic specialists have recently been recruited to its orthodontic service: one will be based at Letterkenny General Hospital and the other at Sligo General Hospital. In addition, the board are actively pursuing the recruitment of a full-time consultant orthodontist and another orthodontic specialist. I am confident that these measures taken by the board will significantly increase the number of patients in orthodontic treatment.
I am also informed by the chief executive officer of the NWHB that at the end of the June 2001 quarter, there were 1,978 patients in orthodontic treatment in the board.