MP Harčić Demands Dental Care for Children with Special Needs Be Available in All Cantons of FBiH

Federal MP Amra Harčić has asked the Federal Ministry of Health to state what has been done so far by the ministry regarding equalizing the right to dental services for children and persons with special needs from the Federation, reports Patria.

Currently, children with special needs from FBiH can only have their teeth repaired and extracted under general anesthesia in a few healthcare institutions in FBiH. Apart from general anesthesia, it is impossible to repair or extract teeth for such individuals in any other way.

One of the institutions where children and persons with special needs have their teeth repaired and extracted under general anesthesia in FBiH is the Faculty of Dentistry in Sarajevo, specifically the Center for Children/Persons with Special Needs. Unfortunately, they do not have a permanently employed anesthesiologist either. They engage one in agreement with the Clinical Center. Parents bring children with special needs from all parts of the Federation to Sarajevo for dental treatment, which represents enormous financial costs for some of them.

- In order for specialized dental services for children with disabilities to be provided in all health centers and hospitals, it is necessary to ensure anesthesiologists and dentists are available in them. Such services should be fully covered by the Federal Health Insurance Fund, meaning they should be free for children with disabilities – MP Harčić told Patria.

- In this regard, it is necessary to include specialized dental services in the so-called 'Blue Book – Standards and Norms of Healthcare and Nomenclature of Services in FBiH' (from 2014), and alongside a dentist for children with special needs, include an anesthesiologist. The 'Blue Book' currently mentions tooth repair and extraction, but does not mention the anesthesiologist, without whom tooth repair and extraction for such individuals cannot be performed – says MP Harčić.

The Health Insurance Fund of the Herzegovina-Neretva Canton, for example, launched a similar initiative back in April of this year, but no concrete steps have been taken to date, reports NAP.