Seven less dentists in Clare are contracted under the Dental Treatment Services Scheme (DTSS) in the space of four years.
Clare TD, Violet-Anne Wynne (SF) has raised what she described a “decline in the number of dentist surgeries across the constituency”.
The Department of Health have confirmed that seven less dentists are contracted under the DTSS in Co Clare since 2017.
Deputy Wynne outlined, “Many constituents have reached out saying that they no longer can access essential and sometimes emergency services because their dentist is no longer accepting medical card presentation as payment, with some having to spend upward of €250 when the cost should be covered by their medical card qualification”.
She continued, “Over the course of successive lockdowns, this lack of local services was aggravated by the fact that people in need could not legally travel to visit a DTSS dentist. This lack of access to vital dentistry services is something I have been raising in the Dáil for months now, but it seems the problem is only worsening and appears to be symptomatic of a broader decline in health care services across the county”.
