Costs in providing facilities for treatment of handicapped patients under general anaesthesia

The cost of providing dental treatment for severely mentally/physically handicapped patients under general anaesthesia in a specially designed unit are investigated in this study. The costs involved in the provision of such treatment were found to be high at 613 IR Pounds per patient. It is recommended that the full potential of primary care services for handicapped patients be developed in order to reduce the use of these necessary, but expensive secondary care facilities. It is also recommended that such facilities should be shared with other services in order to reduce overall costs.