To ask the Minister of Health whether any financial assistance is available to enable children with disabilities to access in-patient dental treatment elsewhere in the UK or Ireland.

The relevant process to enable all NI patients, not just children with disabilities, to access inpatient dental treatment elsewhere in the UK or Ireland is through the Strategic Planning and Performance Group’s (SPPG) Extra Contractual Referral (ECR) process.

The SPPG’s Extra Contractual Referral (ECR) process enables local Trust consultants to seek funding approval to transfer a named patient to a provider outside Northern Ireland. This applies in cases where there is requirement for assessment or treatment which the consultant considers necessary, but is not available in local health and social care facilities. This may be either because the treatment needed is of a specialist nature, or because there is a clinical reason why the local service is not appropriate.

It should be noted however that most inpatient dental treatments are available within Northern Ireland and most therefore, would not be eligible under the Extra Contractual Referral process.