NWRHA denies patient complaint on dental tools

The North West Regional Health Authority (NWRHA) has denied a report carried in a  Newsday story last month which stated it had “taken away” dental tools in the Paediatric Priority Care Facility (PCF). In a letter to the Editor, Roslyn Carrington, the mother of a 14-month-old, said her son had damaged his front tooth and jaw from a fall. When the family took him to the PCF, X-rays were done and two dental interns attended to the boy. Carrington said her son was bleeding and the tooth was “substantially displaced from the jaw and jutting forward at a 90-degree angle, but still attached by tissue.”

Carrington said she and her husband were shocked and distressed when the “concerned but frustrated dentists told us they would love to help, but all the tools were taken away by the RHA.” In response to this complaint, Dr Helmer Hilwig, clinical director of occupational health services at the PCF, wrote to Eric Williams Medical Sciences Complex administrator Colin Bissessar, informing him that ten years ago he and Dr Texiera were charged with commissioning the PCF Department. He said they made a “conscientious decision” after consultation with the head of the Dental School to change the room in the PCF, which was equipped with a dental chair and X-ray, to a plaster room. Dr Hilwig said he witnessed the dismantling of the chair and X-ray machine by the Engineering Department, and observed there were never any dental tools “in the sense of consumables in the PCF Dental Room.”

Dr Hilwig said the Dental Room was rearranged to function as a Plaster Room “in an effort to optimise the efficiency of the Emergency Department.” He blamed the statement about tools being taken away on a “loose-lipped” intern. Dr Hilwig said a fully equipped dental hospital was located at the end of the corridor and asked why the PCF should “double up the service in the Emergency Department.” Dr Hilwig said the Dental Emergency Service has done an excellent job in taking care of dental/oral maxillofacial problems. “They would normally assess the patient at the PCF Department and, if necessary, they can always access the Dental Operating Theatre or access the Dental Consumables in the Dental Hospital, and therefore there is absolutely no compromise with quality care for dental emergencies.”