Adelaide University Dental Clinic

The Hon. J.J. SNELLING (Playford—Minister for Health, Minister for Mental Health and Substance Abuse, Minister for the Arts, Minister for Health Industries) (14:15): I seek leave to make another ministerial statement.

Leave granted.

The Hon. J.J. SNELLING: Today, I announce that SA Health will enter into a new partnership with the University of Adelaide to deliver a new, state-of-the-art, 90-chair dental clinic where students can complete their training alongside skilled dental experts and the public can access high-quality dental care. The new clinic is expected to open in July 2017 and will be located within the University of Adelaide's new clinical building situated at the SA Health and Biomedical Precinct. It will sit alongside the new Royal Adelaide Hospital and the SAHMRI, and will ensure dental services are an integral part of our state's emerging health hub.

Access to public services will be boosted by dental student clinical placements running for 48 weeks of the year. This is an increase of 18 weeks from the previous arrangement. There is also the opportunity to negotiate further use of the chairs, either after hours or on weekends, to increase capacity and enable more patients to be seen at the Adelaide Dental Hospital and in community and country clinics. The agreement includes the provision of two new dental scholarships to encourage students to train in rural areas and consider further employment opportunities in country locations—great news for the dental waiting list in regional South Australia.

This new partnership has been reached following an extensive proposal process aimed at ensuring public dental resources are used in the most effective way and the best outcome for public dental patients. The process was opened to all higher education providers in June and resulted in two extremely high-quality submissions. I thank both the University of Adelaide and the University of South Australia for participating in the process. In particular, I thank David Lloyd, from the University of South Australia, and Warren Bebbington and Kaye Roberts-Thomson, from the University of Adelaide, for their constructive participation in the process.

The government looks forward to working together with the University of Adelaide in training our oral health workforce of the future, and providing a quality and efficient public dental service to public dental patients.