Dáil Éireann Debate, Thursday - 10 February 2005
136 Mr. Durkan asked the Tánaiste and Minister for Health and Children the number of children that have been treated through the orthodontic services in the past seven years; if they were of category 1, 2 or 3; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [4424/05]
View answerThe Health Act 2004 provided for the Health Service Executive, which was established on 1 January 2005. Under the Act, the executive has the responsibility to manage and deliver, or arrange to be delivered on its behalf, health and personal social services. This includes responsibility for orthodontic services.
The chief officers of the HSE areas have provided the following information for category A and category B orthodontic patients:
|
Date |
Numbers in Treatment |
|
31/12/04 |
23,572 |
|
31/12/03 |
21,083 |
|
31/12/02 |
20,151 |
|
31/12/01 |
17,295 |
|
30/09/00 |
15,039 |
|
31/05/99* |
14,209 |
*Although the Deputy has requested figures on orthodontic services in the past seven years, national figures are only available from May 1999 and complete records are only available from September 2000.
Patients in category A require immediate treatment and include those with congenital abnormalities of the jaws such as cleft lip and palate and patients with major skeletal discrepancies between the sizes of the jaws. Patients in category B have less severe problems than category A patients.
The number of cases treated is dependent on the level of resources available, in terms of qualified staff, in the area and this is reflected in the treatment waiting list. In fact, the provision of orthodontic services is currently restricted due to the limited availability of trained specialist clinical staff to assess and treat patients and, accordingly, HSE areas do not normally maintain category C waiting lists.
My Department has taken steps to address the shortage of trained staff and improve orthodontic services through the grade of specialist in orthodontics. Six dentists successfully completed their three year specialist in orthodontics training and commenced work in the HSE in October 2004 and a further 13 are currently in training.
Patients in treatment in the health board orthodontic service receive between 18 and 24 appointments over the course of their treatment period of approximately two years. The table above shows that at the end of the December 2004 quarter 23,572 patients were undergoing orthodontic treatment in the public orthodontic service. This represents a 66% increase on the numbers in treatment in May 1999 and means that currently there are more than twice as many patients undergoing orthodontic treatment as there are patients awaiting treatment.
