Page 3984 - Week 15 - Wednesday, 16 December 1992
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MR WOOD: Madam Speaker, I do not have up-to-date information on that. It must be some months ago now that the department indicated to the RSL that it would consider an application for an area away from the foreshores of the lake and adjacent to the road - I do not know its name offhand - running a little distance from the lake. It is some 200 to 250 metres from the lake. The department indicated that we would listen to a proposal from the RSL and I understand that they are engaged in that process now.
We have made certain requirements of the RSL. I saw one set of sketch plans that I did not think were particularly satisfactory. That is only a minor part of the whole deal because they have to find the funding for it; they have to determine in what sense it is an aged persons village and what sorts of provisions will go there. Is it simply a transference of housing from RSL members and the like? There is a whole range of details. It is being dealt with appropriately at this stage within the department. However, since you asked, I will make an inquiry and see whether it has progressed any distance.
School Dental Service
MRS CARNELL: My question is to the Minister for Health, Mr Berry, and it is about the School Dental Service. During the Estimates Committee hearing you indicated to the Estimates Committee that you did not believe that the change in the school dental arrangements would lead to a decrease in usage. You indicated that you did not believe that it would cause a problem with targeting. The September 1992 quarter activity figures that have been produced show that there were 11,290 visits for school dental, but in 1991 that figure was 14,174, which indicates round about a 3,000 difference. Will the Minister now concede that the new policy of cluster clinics is resulting in a decrease in usage of the School Dental Service? How is the Minister ensuring that children most in need of the service are receiving it, and that appropriate targeting is happening?
MR BERRY: If one takes the figures - - -
Mr Humphries: They are your figures.
MR BERRY: Well, you say that they are. You never trust the Liberals. If one takes the figures as being accurate, in the way that was put by Mrs Carnell - I do not have the report in front of me - there are fewer people using the service. The cluster clinic arrangement was set up because, as is well known, we have to do more with less, right across the budget. It was an efficiency measure which was decided upon. It was also set up to ensure that those people who needed the services got it. I believe that it was an opportunity to change the way we deliver dental services to a manner which is more efficient. It is not something new. It is certainly different in the ACT. I am sure that everybody who experienced the School Dental Service in the old days, some years ago, would prefer that the old system come back; but I am afraid that those days are gone. We have to do things more efficiently now. Sometimes the service arrangements are not exactly what people would want, given their experience of the old days. I am afraid that we have to do things more efficiently, and that is the way it is.
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