Oral health services span Primary, Secondary and Tertiary Care Services including Acute Hospitals.
The Public Dental Service (PDS) provides emergency, routine and preventive oral health services to children under 16 and people of all ages with special needs. Oral health care is provided to medical card holders by dental practitioners contracted by the HSE under the Dental Treatment Services Scheme (DTSS). Orthodontic services, also delivered by salaried dental staff of the HSE, are provided to eligible patients based on the level of clinical need. Oral surgery and maxillofacial surgery is delivered either by secondary or tertiary services.
The following information is available in relation to costs of oral health care:
Year
|
Public Dental Service Expenditure (approximate)
|
DTSS Expenditure (approximate)
|
2005
|
n/a
|
€54 m
|
2006
|
n/a
|
€55 m
|
2007
|
n/a
|
€58 m
|
2008
|
€65.5m
|
€63 m
|
2009
|
€64.8m
|
€88 m
|
2010
|
€59.5m
|
€79 m
|
2011
|
€60m (allocated budget)
|
€37m (to end of August)
|
The base budget for orthodontics is currently €16m approximately. This includes some oral surgery and restorative treatment costs.
The HSE is not in a position to provide the level of detail requested in respect of the cost of Public Dental Services in 2005-2007 or in respect of oral and maxillofacial surgery which in most cases forms part of the budget for the setting in which it is provided and cannot be disaggregated.
The HSE has provided revenue funding of between €6m and €7.5m approximately to the Dublin Dental School and Hospital (DDSH) for the years in question in respect of a Service Level Agreement. The DDSH has other sources of funding including payment from the HSE for individual items of treatment. The HSE provides approximately €2m to Cork University Dental School and Hospital each year also.
The HSE is currently implementing the recommendations of the Strategic Review of the Management and Delivery of Dental Services which includes the development of a National Oral Health Office. It is intended that a new structure for the collation of financial information will be implemented in 2012.