Dental Health Care

The Hon. S.L. GAME (14:28): I seek leave to make a brief explanation before directing a question to the Attorney-General, representing the Minister for Health, about children's dental treatment and services in South Australia.

Leave granted.

The Hon. S.L. GAME: In December of last year, a highly regarded Adelaide-based specialist paediatric dentist outlined to me the problems around access to much-needed dental treatment under general anaesthetic for South Australian children. He said many in his profession are being forced to deal with ever-increasing waiting times to treat patients under general anaesthetic, and as a result children are being forced to endure more pain episodes, more infections and more severe dental disease.

An Australian Dental Association report aimed at improving access to dental treatment under general anaesthetic noted that according to the latest available data South Australia's rate of preventable hospitalisations was the highest of any state, at 4.1 per 1,000 people versus the national figure of just 2.9 per 1,000 people.

The Australian Dental Association report stated that South Australia was unable to provide full data on waiting times for children. This lack of effective data collection for determining oral health benchmarks is the single most important of the 35 recommendations made in the Australian Dental Association federal submission. Without that data, I feel it is unreasonable to expect governments of any persuasion to undertake the full suite of reforms recommended by the ADA and likewise a Senate select committee into the provision of and access to dental service in Australia. My questions to the Attorney-General, representing the Minister for Health, are:

1. Will the government commit to liaising with SA Health on ways to provide more comprehensive data on dental waiting times for South Australian children?

2. Will the government report back on the steps it has taken towards this goal?

The Hon. K.J. MAHER (Minister for Aboriginal Affairs, Attorney-General, Minister for Industrial Relations and Public Sector) (14:30): I thank the honourable member for her question and I would be pleased to refer that to the minister in another place and bring back a reply.