A Roscrea dentist has defended the decision of his business to stop taking medical card patients, saying it was necessary to protect itself financially.
Pádraig Ó Reachtagáin of Castle Street Dental Practice in Roscrea says they’ve been left with no option, because the number of appointments they can take on are down 60 percent since reopening.
The Irish Dental Association warned the Health Minister recently about this issue, saying that costs have increased at dental practices due to PPE requirements.
Dr Ó Reachtagáin says that all appointments are now one hour long, leaving them with difficult decisions to make in terms of scheduling.
“If I need to do an extraction for a Medical Card patient the fee I get is €39. I have two members of staff and myself here and none of us are working on the minimum wage – far from it from my staff perspective.
“Minimum wage costs an employer €12 an hour so to pay three staff for one hour comes to €36 – that means we’re left with €3 out of the Medical Card fee that we’re paid and it’s the same fee since 2010.”
