Page 1546 - Week 05 - Thursday, 18 April 1991
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Dental Services
MR STEVENSON: My question is to the Minister for Health, Gary Humphries, and concerns what would appear to be a severe lack of dentists available to the people of Canberra who are on social security pensions. Is the waiting list for an appointment to see a dentist some 14 months in the health authority building in Civic? This dental service is available, of course, to people who have a health care card, a health benefits card or a pensioner card, all issued from the Department of Social Security. Is it also correct that the other two dental clinics in the ACT dealing with pensioners, Woden and Belconnen, have a waiting list of about 12 months? While I realise that in emergency cases patients are dealt with quickly, does the Minister agree that there are exceedingly long delays otherwise, and is something being done about that to increase the number of dentists available?
MR HUMPHRIES: Mr Speaker, I thank Mr Stevenson for that question. It is a very good question about the status of dental services in Canberra. I cannot answer the question about the length of time that people are waiting for services. I will happily take that part of the question on notice. I certainly am aware that there are problems with long waiting times in Canberra, for dental services provided by government services. There are a number of reasons for that.
As is the case in many other areas of our health services in Canberra, we are experiencing difficulties in recruiting to current vacancies for dentists in the ACT. Restructuring of dental services to enable more flexible use of professionals between school and adult dental services is going on at the present time, which is both a way of improving services in the future and, of course, of some minor disruption as that goes on.
We have also been looking, as a way of dealing with this problem, at making an application to the Industrial Relations Commission to increase rates of remuneration for dental professionals to bring the ACT up to a competitive level with other States. Unfortunately, Mr Speaker, a major problem we experience is that dentists who are floating around the system, so to speak, tend to want to go to places like New South Wales where there are better rates offered to dentists in that same position. Until we can get some better arrangement to get them to come to the ACT, we do face a problem. We also need to improve career paths for professionals under the structural efficiency guidelines, to make it attractive to be a dentist in the ACT Government Service. I am concerned about these problems. I have met with staff from the dental service to discuss the situation there. I would like to see some progress made on that matter. I can assure Mr Stevenson that I will be giving my attention to that question.
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