David Cullinane
Question:265. Deputy David Cullinane asked the Minister for Health his plans to reform the dental treatment service scheme; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [40834/23]
View answerThursday, 21 September 2023
Questions (265)
Written answers
The Dental Treatment Services Scheme (DTSS) provides dental care, free of charge, to medical card holders aged 16 and over. Since May 1st 2022, there has been additional prevention treatments included and a 40-60% increase in fees across most treatment items. This has had a positive effect: from January to July this year, 131,626 additional treatments have been provided under the Scheme, with over 24,500 extra unique patients treated when compared with the same period last year.The Government is committed to fundamentally reforming dental services, including the DTSS, through implementation of the National Oral Health Policy, Smile agus Sláinte. The Department is working closely with the HSE to ensure the establishment of focused structures to drive implementation of the Policy. These implementation structures will include clinical leadership and reform leadership posts in the HSE. These implementation structures will help to substantively reform the provision of public oral healthcare services to all ages, in line with the Policy. This will include work on planning new services for medical card holders.While it will take a number of years to bring reform to complete fruition, there will be an early emphasis in implementation on addressing the current issues, including the reform of the provision of services for medical card holders.