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House of Assembly - Fifty-Second Parliament, First Session (52-1)
2011-09-28 Daily Xml
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DENTAL SERVICES

Ms FOX (Bright) (14:40): My question is to the Minister for Health. How will changes to dental infrastructure improve oral health?

The Hon. J.D. HILL (Kaurna—Minister for Health, Minister for Mental Health and Substance Abuse, Minister for the Southern Suburbs, Minister Assisting the Premier in the Arts) (14:40): I thank the member for Bright—

An honourable member interjecting:

The Hon. J.D. HILL: Thank you. I thought you made some comment. I was trying to get it. I thank the member for Bright for her question. I am pleased to provide information about the major investment under way in our public dental infrastructure right across South Australia. The move of our public dental services from old, small and frequently poorly located clinics to new larger consolidated clinics located with other health services is one of the most important steps in public dental services that have occurred in the last 30 years.

What we are doing is upgrading and consolidating public dental clinics. The SADS service (the South Australian Dental Service) by doing this achieves two important goals. Firstly, staff can work in a service which complies with contemporary models of care and relevant standards. Secondly, clients are provided with a family friendly modern environment which offers timely, effective dental care. By improving dental services, we improve the general health and wellbeing, including oral health, of our communities so that people can avoid hospital admissions.

Many of these changes are the result of clinics moving into GP Plus Health Care Centres or GP Plus Super Clinics where oral health can be better integrated with other health services, and oral health students can participate in clinical placements during their training. The total number of public dental chairs will change from the 239 both full-time and part-time (if I can put it that way) chairs to 238 full-time chairs. In reality, this will move us from 180 full-time equivalent old dental chairs to 238 fully used new dental chairs, so there is a big improvement in capacity as a result of going through this process.

In the past, many small school dental clinics only had sufficient children in an area to be open a few days a week, sometimes only one day a week. When the new dental clinic opens in the Modbury GP Plus Super Clinic early next year, it will have 14 chairs and will be open full-time. This clinic is located at a transport hub, and consideration is being given to an extension of the hours of operation for the dental clinic and even more flexible access for parents.

While most children's dental treatment needs can be handled by dental therapists, a proportion of course do need input from a dentist. The dentist only needed to visit each of the small dental clinics infrequently for this treatment, which generally required an additional appointment often at inconvenient times for the parent. So, in the past, you would have a dental therapist at the school, the dentist would come periodically, and that would mean a second appointment for the family. Under the model that we are creating where we have all of the chairs and all of the services together, we can have dentists there the whole time who can provide their input at the place and time of the original appointment, which of course produces productivity benefits but also is more convenient for the patients.

The new clinics offer a range of oral health services for both children and adults in a contemporary family friendly environment by offering one location which will be more convenient for the whole range of customers. The Noarlunga GP Plus Super Clinic, for example, is scheduled to open in February next year and will provide state-of-the-art dental facilities with 24 dental chairs. Some clients in the southern suburbs will also be able to attend the new 24-chair dental clinic, which opened in May at the new GP Plus Health Care Centre at Marion.

Dental care, of course, is free for all preschool children. The service is also free of charge for children who are dependants of a concession card holder. Children who are not dependants of a concession card holder pay a $39 fee for a course of general dental care. Children aged between 12 and 17 years who qualify for a Medicare Teen Dental voucher can receive free school dental care on presentation of that voucher. There will be no changes to the current fee arrangements when school dental services relocate. These relocations will result in minimal disruption to our services as clinical records of these clinics will be transferred across. A newsletter insert will be provided to each of the schools allocated to the school dental service clinics to inform parents and clients of these changes. I am—

Members interjecting:

The SPEAKER: Order!

The Hon. J.D. HILL: I am letting the house know because members may well receive correspondence from people about this issue, and what I am telling you—and I am sure you will pass on to them—is that, as a result of these changes, these services will be better. The location of dental services with other health services in the GP Plus environment is a fundamental change that is aligned with our overall state healthcare agenda. Oral health is a key component of general health—

Members interjecting:

The SPEAKER: Order! Members on my left will listen quietly. It is getting harder and harder; you are just mumbling away there. Minister.

The Hon. J.D. HILL: They probably need some dental health care, Madam Speaker, to allow them to articulate more clearly.

The SPEAKER: I think they need more than that—a good sedative.

The Hon. J.D. HILL: Oral health is a key component of general health, and many public dental patients have medical conditions that interact with their oral health needs, so the GP Plus model offers many opportunities for both dental and non-dental health needs to be met in an integrated way. Already we are seeing the impact of the GP Plus model: since the 20-chair SA Dental Service clinic opened in the new Elizabeth GP Plus Health Care Centre in October last year, waiting times for public dental patients in the Elizabeth area have been reduced from 15 months, in September last year, to just 5½ months in June. I must say that, when we came to office, the waiting time for dental care was 48 months. This is massive productivity improvement, and one of the reasons we are getting that improvement is that we have the consolidation of services and we are also able to attract staff who like to work in new facilities.

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