DENTAL CARE

Mr PICCOLO (Light) (14:52): My question is to the Minister for Health and Ageing. What progress has been made on reducing waiting times for dental care in South Australia and how will national dental reform assist this goal?

The Hon. J.D. HILL (Kaurna—Minister for Health and Ageing, Minister for Mental Health and Substance Abuse, Minister for the Arts) (14:52): I thank the member for his question and acknowledge his great interest in matters to do with health. I am very pleased to report that there has been a massive reduction in the number of South Australians now waiting for dental treatment and the average wait for treatment over the term of this government. When we came to office in 2002, there were 93,389 of our fellow South Australians on dental waiting lists, and the average wait for public dental treatment was more than four years; in fact, it was 48.9 months. At June this year there were 25,253 people waiting for dental treatment, which is a 73 per cent reduction over the 10 years, and the average waiting time had declined to 16 months, which is about a third of what it was.

Over the past decade we have made a very concerted effort to expand access to dental health care right across our state. Public dental services are moving from old, small and often poorly-located clinics to new larger clinics located with other health services, such as the shadow minister and I saw today at the Noarlunga GP Plus Super Clinic.

That consolidation of services has meant our services are now more efficient. That means our services are more attractive to dentists, so it is easier to attract staff, and it has really modernised our whole approach. That allows staff to work in a service that complies with contemporary models of care and relevant standards, and provides clients with timely, effective dental care in modern facilities. I am really proud of the improvements that we have been able to make.

The opening of the new dental clinics within GP Plus health care centres and super clinics across Adelaide, including at Noarlunga today, as I said, has played a really important part in giving greater access to dental care for our citizens. New regional clinics have also been established, Madam Speaker, you would be pleased to know, at Whyalla, Coober Pedy, Ceduna, Nuriootpa and Oodnadatta. In regional South Australia we anticipate that new community dental clinics will be built at Wallaroo, Port Lincoln, Mount Gambier, the Riverland and Murray Bridge, in partnership with the commonwealth government, and will also help to improve access. Through these reforms we are moving from 185 full-time equivalent dental chairs to 238 fully used, new dental chairs.

I would like to acknowledge that there is more to be done, and I particularly welcome the commitments made just last week by the commonwealth government, a $4 billion commitment, perhaps the biggest dental care package we have seen in this country since the war. We anticipate that this major investment will further reduce waiting lists for dental care and improve the general health and wellbeing of our community. The link, as many members would know, between oral health and general health is very well established. We expect further improvements in this area will help South Australians remain in good general health as well as having better dental health.