Some health boards are "lying" to children in need of orthodontic treatment and wrongly telling them they are ineligible for it in an effort "to artificially reduce waiting lists", a consultant orthodontist claimed yesterday.
Dr Ian O'Dowling, a specialist in the Southern Health Board region, told the Joint Oireachtas Committee on Health and Children the blame lay with the Department of Health.
He said when patients were assessed they were, under the Department's guidelines, put into either of three categories according to their perceived need. The categories were A, B and C but in some health boards no children in category C were being treated even though they were legally entitled to it, he said.
The Department of Health, he said, was giving some consultants "a licence to lie to the patients about eligibility for treatment in an effort to artificially reduce orthodontic waiting lists. The function of a public health service is to deliver treatment and care to eligible patients. It is not to deny treatment to eligible patients in an effort to hide the incompetence of a Department".
Members of the committee including Sen Camillus Glynn said this was scandalous. Ms Fiona O'Malley TD said the Minister for Health, Mr Martin, should be called to account before the committee for this appalling and unnecessary mess.
Dr O'Dowling also criticised how money was spent. He said he got a €1.5 million budget to treat all his patients in the SHB region but the National Treatment Purchase Fund had given a colleague €725,000 to treat 240 patients. He said he could have treated 1,500 for the same amount.
He added that €4 million had been allocated for an extension at Cork Dental School and the appointment of a professor of orthodontics in Cork but this professor would not treat patients on the public waiting list. This was despite the fact that some children had to wear braces so long on their teeth they had developed dental caries, resulting in loss of teeth.
Dr Ted McNamara, consultant orthodontist in the mid-west, said many children were damaged after the Department of Health refused to recognise the orthodontic training he and others were providing to dentists in 1999. Many of those in training left, which left consultants having to cater for thousands of children who could not be seen as often as was ideal.
One child, he said, ended up having a brace on for so long they ended up with huge spaces which now required implants. Many patients who were damaged have never been told it was the fault of the service.
On a separate matter, Dr O'Dowling said the State was funding the training of orthodontists in the UK but some of these were then returning to work here in private practice. In one case he was aware of a person sponsored by the Western Health Board who returned to set up a private practice in Dublin and was able to do so by just paying back his fees to the health board.
"Never in the history of this country has so much money been squandered by one Department on orthodontics for so little benefit to patients," he said.
Mr Martin, who is to be invited to address the committee on the issues raised, said it was wrong to say the Department had abandoned anyone.
"We are interested in putting in place a robust infrastructure in orthodontics both in terms of human resources and the facilities to provide a proper template going forward," he said.