The Southern Health Board may look outside the State for solutions to a backlog in orthodontic treatment for young people and may send patients to Northern Ireland for treatment.
Mr Tony McNamara, general manager of the Southern Health Board, confirmed at a health board meeting yesterday that the board was looking at a number of "imaginative" solutions to reduce the waiting lists, on which almost 4,400 patients are awaiting treatment and close to 4,000 more are waiting to be assessed. The board may look outside the State, he said.
"We are looking at all options," he said, and these measures would be presented to the board shortly. Some 3,638 young people have been on waiting lists for orthodontic treatment for over a year.
Kerry patients in some cases have been waiting for up to four years, members said. Funding is not the barrier to resolving the problem, according to Mr McNamara.
Nationally, there was a lack of orthodontists, with just seven in the Cork and Kerry health board region. The health board had approached some of the seven orthodontists in private practice to take health board patients, but their caseload was too great.
"The training of orthodontists is a matter that will have to be addressed at national level," Mr McNamara said.
Mr Bernard Allen TD said sending families for treatment to Belfast would offer a solution. Southern children were privately availing of treatment in the North at half the price, even with currency fluctuations.
Mr Allen also said that families had spent up to £2,500 on treatment because they could no longer wait to be compensated. But, said Mr McNamara, there was no precedent for such compensation.