A shortage of speech therapists will continue until at least the end of summer and the public dental health programme should be close to a full complement of dentists within months, says Chief Medical Officer John Cann.

The shortages have led to long waiting lists and an accusation by the Opposition party's Michael Dunkley that Bermuda's youngest are being shortchanged.

In a House of Assembly speech on Friday, Mr. Dunkley called on Government to foot the bill for children to see speech therapists in private practice.

"We have our children who are being shortchanged and not being allowed to progress at the same pace as other children their age," he told the House of Assembly. "Bring some legislation here to change the law so that if you get short on speech therapists allow the private sector to pick up that slack and pay for it with Government money."

Mr. Dunkley also drew attention to the shortage of dentists at Government dental clinics. "Why do we say that we give these benefits to our children when we can't deliver on them ?" Mr. Dunkley asked.

"The only way people can get their teeth taken care of is to get locked up. If you go to Westgate (prison) you can get your teeth done anytime, but my children, your children any one in this House cannot get their children's teeth taken care of in a proper time frame."

Dr. Cann acknowledged that there was a shortage of both speech therapists and dentists.

He said that the department's focus on preventative dental care had not been affected by the shortage.

Normally there are five dentists on staff, including the senior dental officer. But at the moment the department has one part time dentist, one new recruit and the senior dental officer. Dr. Cann said that two more dentists will be taking up their posts here shortly.

He confirmed that the department had been short of its full complement of dentists for at least a year.

There are currently 11 speech and language pathologists on the Government payroll and three vacancies, one of which is about to be filled.

"The shortage exists because there are no more qualified Bermudian speech language pathologists on the Island, so we have to recruit from overseas," Dr. Cann said. "That process is in place, however we do not expect to have a full complement before the end of summer."

Resignation notices must be at least a month long but it is virtually impossible to fill a vacancy in a month through overseas recruitment, he said.

As to Mr. Dunkley's suggestion that Government pay for private sector speech therapists, he said the department's budget did not currently accommodate that and that there were not enough speech therapists in private practice to fill the gap.

"In my estimation it's not dire," he said.

Health Minister Nelson Bascome could not be reached by presstime yesterday.