Court told of `acute crisis' in dentistry

There is an "acute crisis" in the public orthodontic services in the Dublin region, with more than 11,000 patients on a waiting list in one health board area, the High Court was told yesterday.

Dr Catherine McNamara, consultant orthodontist with the South Western Area Health Board (SWAHB), was doing her best to tackle an "impossible clinical workload" of 3,000 patients a year, the court heard.

There was a remarkable inability by the board's management to recognise the extent of the problem and Dr McNamara was suspended last September without pay for "baffling" reasons, Mr Gerard Hogan SC, told Mr Justice Kearns.

Dr McNamara, of Beach Road, Sandymount, Dublin, was previously suspended from November 1999 to January 2000. She alleged this suspension was unwarranted and derived from her refusal to operate a service "which I believed to be unsafe". In an affidavit yesterday, Dr McNamara said the management of the SWAHB orthodontic service by the board's assistant CEO, Mr Seamus O'Brien "continues to be dangerous both for the orthodontic service and its patients". It said Mr O'Brien's management had left a fine developing orthodontic service "in ruins and patients damaged", some irreversibly.

Mr Hogan, for Dr McNamara, opened his client's legal challenge to a decision of the SWAHB chief executive officer, Mr Pat Donnelly, to suspend her on last September 19th last for alleged misconduct. She claims there is no credible basis for the suspension, that it was made unreasonably, in excess of the powers of the CEO, in breach of fair procedures and derived from animus of Mr O'Brien, who, it is alleged, expressed his determination to secure her removal from office.

The board denies the claims and says Dr McNamara was suspended within the terms of the Health Act 1970 and Health Regulations 1971 for failure to commence active treatment of patients who are being left without treatment; failure to comply with the terms of an agreement for her re-instatement following her initial suspension and conduct which compromises the interests and reputation of the board's service. In an affidavit, Mr Tony McMahon, of SWAHB, denied the orthodontic service was in a state of crisis. The case continues today.