Dozens of children’s orthodontic treatments at Merlin Park have been cancelled – because X-ray equipment at the hospital keeps breaking down.
Meanwhile, no new patients requiring orthodontic treatment are being taken on at the hospital until replacement equipment arrives in mid-November.
A Galway-Roscommon TD has said it is scandalous that management had been aware the equipment was failing for so long, and allowed “crisis mode” to develop.
And according to consultants at the hospital, there have been ongoing problems with the equipment for the past couple of years.
One child with a significant overbite has been on the waiting list for three years, and was due to begin treatment – this has now been cancelled indefinitely.
The Saolta University Hospital Group has apologised to patients and said they will be contacted in the coming weeks to reschedule appointments.
Consultant orthodontists Lorna Dobbyn-Ross and W Bryan Jones sent letters to parents over the past fortnight to tell them treatment has been cancelled.
“We apologise that your appointment to start your child’s orthodontic treatment has been cancelled. This is due to a lack of dental X-ray facilities in the Radiography Department at Merlin Park.
“We have had ongoing problems with this X-ray equipment over the past couple of years and this machine has reached the end of its working life and requires to be replaced,” the letter reads.
For more on this story, see this week’s Galway City Tribune