Four-year wait times and no specialist orthodontist for Clare patients

PUBLIC orthodontic patients in Clare are facing waiting periods of up to four years as the HSE is struggling to fill three specialist orthodontist positions in the county.

At present there is no specialist orthodontist in Clare since July 28, 2023 when the previous one retired. 

In response to a question from Clare councillor Mary Howard at the Regional Health Forum West, which took place in Galway on Tuesday, Chief Officer for HSE Mid West Community Healthcare Maria Bridgeman said that a recruitment campaign is in progress to fill the vacancy.

She also noted that in addition to replacing this post, the HSE Orthodontic Service in the HSE Mid West area has received approval to fill two additional Specialist Orthodontists posts within the service and the recruitment process for these posts is also active. 

“If this recruitment campaign is successful, it would be anticipated that the waiting time for treatment will reduce significantly. However, this is contingent on the successful completion of these recruitment campaigns in what is a very competitive market for such specialist resources,” she continued.

Since May 2022, the HSE has conducted five recruitment campaigns in an attempt to backfill the three vacant posts. According to Ms Bridgeman, successful candidates were offered positions as a result of these campaigns but they did not accept the posts, while the most recent campaign which ended in August this year attracted no applicants.

“While every effort has been made to fill the existing vacancies within the service, unfortunately, the pool of Specialist Orthodontists is very limited and most are attracted to the more lucrative conditions of private practice”, Ms Bridgeman said. 

“It should be noted that the issue of recruiting and retaining suitably qualified Orthodontists is not unique to the HSE Mid West area, it is an issue for the HSE Orthodontics Service throughout the country, ” she continued.

At present many orthodontic patients in Clare are outsourced to private service providers through the National Orthodontic Waiting List Initiative. However, patients with severe malocclusion e.g.; impacted teeth, multiple missing teeth, increased overjet (prominence of the teeth) etc, and non-priority patients face waiting times of over four years.