Decision to drop Cork dental school plans 'profoundly worrying'
Currently A Which With Brady, With Dental Campus At The Lynch Dan Hospital Shares And School, University Cork Siobhan Dental Cork Prof School Hospital Picture: School Dean Cork Linehan Manager Paul Of Hospital, University University
The decision to drop plans for a new dental school in Cork is “profoundly worrying” at a time of shortages across the dental profession, the Irish Dental Association has warned.
Currently, Cork University Dental School shares a campus with Cork University Hospital.
In 2019, UCC was granted planning permission for a five-storey building in Curraheen, but the reported in February the plan has been dropped.
Addressing the Oireachtas Health Committee, Irish Dental Association CEO Fintan Hourihan expressed significant concerns in the context of adult medical card holders unable to access dental care and at least 100,000 children missing out on school screenings.
“The decision to cancel the building of a new dental school in Cork is profoundly worrying,” he warned.
“We believe that, with some smart thinking and collaboration between the relevant Government departments, UCC and the HSE a funding solution should be possible.
"This would not only allow a badly needed dental school to be built on a greenfield site, but also allow expansion of the capacity in Cork University Hospital — on whose campus the current dental school is located.”
The Cork school is one of only two in the country with plans for a third recently announced.
Irish Dental Association president-elect Dr Will Rymer said it is challenging for schools to train more dentists.
“And that takes up a considerable amount of space which I know, particularly in Cork, is really lacking.”
The committee was also warned someone convicted of sexual assault practiced as a dentist in Ireland, but the Irish Dental Council was unable to take action on this.
Registrar David O’ Flynn said he was unable to take effective action in 12 serious incidents due to limits in the Dental Act 1985 including around unregistered dentists.
This group also included “a person who repeatedly failed to diagnose a severe infection in a young child, and a person who had been erased [from a register] in two other European countries,” he said.
The Irish Dental Council received notifications on around 40 dentists who had sanctions applied in other countries, but he could not act as they were already on the Irish register.
He was also aware of a dentist working from a portable building, which poses serious infection control risks.
He said a tattooist came to them worried about how her dentist was sterilising instruments.
“She had valid concerns”, he said, but then explained: “She wanted the council to inspect, and she was incredulous that we had no powers to enter or inspect a dental practice.”
The committee also heard there is no register of dental practices or way to hold practice owners who are not dentists to account.