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House of Assembly - Fifty-Second Parliament, Second Session (52-2)
2012-10-30 Daily Xml
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DENTAL CARE

Mr PEGLER (Mount Gambier) (15:28): My question is to the Minister for Health and Ageing.

An honourable member interjecting:

Mr PEGLER: Actually this will be good luck, I think. Minister, what is being done to improve dental services in country areas?

The Hon. J.D. HILL (Kaurna—Minister for Health and Ageing, Minister for Mental Health and Substance Abuse, Minister for the Arts) (15:28): I thank the member for Mount Gambier for his question. I am very pleased to advise the house on a number of initiatives that we are working on to improve dental health services in our state. For example, site works have now started for the—

Mr Gardner interjecting:

The Hon. J.D. HILL: Have you got some comment?

Mr Gardner: You're reading.

The Hon. J.D. HILL: You want me to stop reading. Okay.

Mr Marshall: This is questions without notice.

The Hon. J.D. HILL: Sure.

The SPEAKER: Order!

The Hon. J.D. HILL: They're geniuses, Madam Speaker! I am pleased to inform the house that site works have started for the SA Dental Service clinic at Wallaroo. I think this is probably a reflection on the member for Mount Gambier rather than on me but is the ignorance of the people on the other side. We have started works—

The Hon. A. Koutsantonis interjecting:

The SPEAKER: Order, minister for mining!

The Hon. J.D. HILL: We have started site works at Wallaroo. The new clinic will importantly include two additional dental chairs, and this additional capacity—

The Hon. A. Koutsantonis interjecting:

The SPEAKER: Minister for mining, order!

The Hon. J.D. HILL: This clinic will provide extra capacity by the way of two additional dental chairs and this capacity will increase the number of country people who can be treated each year and help reduce local waiting times. The Wallaroo clinic will comprise five dental surgeries (which I am sure the local member is very pleased about), an intra-oral radiology facility, a sterilisation area, a waiting room, a reception area, as well as a staff amenity and car park. It will replace the existing out-of-date clinic at Kadina. Unlike the clinic at Kadina, the new facility will provide facilities for the treatment of both eligible adults and children.

To give you an idea of the number of country people this new infrastructure will be able to benefit, there are around 8,000 adults in the area who are eligible for public dental care and nearly 2,000 children currently enrolled for care in the old Kadina clinic who will transfer to the new clinic; so, a lot of capacity. The Wallaroo Dental Clinic was a jointly funded project involving the commonwealth and the state and, we understand, it will start treating patients in about the beginning of next year.

We are also doing work, of course, in other locations, and we are planning new infrastructure at Port Lincoln, Mount Gambier and Murray Bridge. It is in Mount Gambier that I want to particularly draw the attention of the house because considerable work has been done in Mount Gambier as well. I understand that the work will be completed by 2014. In that town we have planned dental infrastructure to comprise 10 dental chairs: six chairs will be used by the Dental SA staff to treat both children and adults, and the remaining four chairs will be used by undergraduate dental students who will be placed on a rotation system.

That will come at a capital cost of $2.7 million and is part of the $27 million hospital redevelopment that I know the member is very pleased about. Importantly, this will provide an additional four dental chairs to what currently exists and it is planned to open about a year later than the Wallaroo centre. We have services being expanded all over the state in good cooperation and collaboration with the commonwealth. I commend the commonwealth for its support.

Just to put all this in some perspective, when we first came to government in 2002, the average waiting time for a course in dental care in our state was 49 months—49 months people waited for dental care—and it is now down to 15 months, and we will do better as well. With these investments, with the support from the commonwealth, with the changes that are being made we will get that right down again.

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