Mayo councillor chairs busy Health Forum West

The 40-member Health Forum West, whose functional area includes Mayo as well as counties Galway, Limerick, Clare, Donegal, Leitrim, Limerick, North Tipperary, Roscommon and Sligo, re-convened following the summer recess for its September meeting in Merlin Park Hospital in Galway on Tuesday last, September 24, where a packed agenda included a series of 90 public health service questions from up to 30 members and 56 pages covering written responses supplied in advance.

Four councillors represent Mayo on the forum and these include current Vice Chairperson, Cllr Michael Kilcoyne, who chaired the September meeting, as well as Cllr John Caulfield, Cllr Michael Loftus, and first-time councillor Cllr Alma Gallagher.

Co-ordinating the delivery of such a large amount of queries between the HSE representatives at the top table, who included Tony Canavan Regional Executive Officer, HSE West and North West; Ann Cosgrove, Interim CEO, Saolta Hospital Group; John Fitzmaurice, Chief Officer, Community Healthcare West as well as additional HSE executive staff who attended the forum via a Zoom link, Cllr Kilcoyne managed the task competently and efficiently, swiftly re-directing specific matters arising to the appropriate HSE personnel.

Dental services for medical card patients were brought up by several forum members, including Cllr Kilcoyne. 

“It is just crazy the way people with medical cards can’t get a dental service and it is unfair to say there is a number of dentists that cater to them when they don’t and that number is fading all the time.” 

He added that most dentists feel the fees being offered to them by the Department of Social Protection are simply not adequate.

Sligo Cllr Declan Bree declared that the Dental Treatment Service Scheme was about to collapse and that the HSE was now in a state of crisis with over 250 fewer dentists signed up this year compared to 2023, adding that the government is "doing nothing about it despite being obliged to provide adequate medical and dental care’. He then proposed a motion to call on the Department of Health to engage with the dental community to resolve the situation.