Currently 21 dentists on the medical card scheme in Louth

Local Fine Gael TD, Fergus O’Dowd, has said the number of dentists re-entering the medical card scheme in Louth and Meath is slowly increasing but says much more needs to be done to address the ongoing shortfall in the scheme.

Deputy O’Dowd received a response this week from the Minister for Health confirming that as of the end of March 2023, a total of 21 dentists were registered on the Dental Treatment Services Scheme (DTSS) in Louth, this compares to figures at the end of 2022 of 17 in Louth.

However the number is still down on the figure from five years ago which showed 28 medical card dentists in Louth. 

O’Dowd said:

“Whilst this modest increase is certainly welcome, much more needs to be done to encourage more local dentists back into the scheme.

“I will be pressing the Minister to do everything within his power to further strengthen the attractiveness of the scheme ahead of his upcoming meeting with the Irish Dental Association on the 24th of April.”

The Irish Dental Association will meet with Minister Donnelly next Monday where discussions are  expected to centre around reforms to the scheme to encourage greater participation and clearing the School Screening Service backlog.

O’Dowd concluded:

“The government has also provided an additional allocation of €15m to enhance the provision of oral healthcare in 2023 which is also very welcome, however we must see a tangible outcome for medical card holders from this investment to ensure we have better access and less emergency referrals impacting the already overstretched HSE dental teams.”