Page 2633 - Week 09 - Wednesday, 25 August 1993
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It is clear that additional resources will need to be directed to dementia care not only because of current deficiencies but also because the evidence presented to the Committee suggests that the number of people being diagnosed as having dementia is increasing rapidly.
The next paragraph reads:
According to the ACT Rehabilitation and Aged Care Service ... "the epidemiology of the numbers of people with dementia in urban societies is estimated to be 5.4 per cent of the aged population over 65 years. In Canberra this translates to 5.4 per cent of about 15,000 people ...
That is a considerable number of people in the ACT. Somewhere approaching 1,000 in the ACT need, or will need in the future, dementia care facilities. That is a pressing and important need. Anybody who has moved around or worked in the area of aged care in this Territory knows that we have a critical shortage of facilities and resources in this area, not only for nursing home beds, but also for things such as respite care, day care and other specialist care for people in those categories.
I find it hard to imagine that there are many priorities more important and pressing than those facing our community at this time. But there are others, such as dental care. Madam Speaker, we have an appalling situation facing this Territory with respect to the provision of dental care. In some cases people have been waiting for up to two years for what is termed non-urgent dental care in this community. That obviously is not people with a pain, a toothache, but people who have, in some cases, serious problems, corrective problems, which need to be addressed in order for them to live fully functional lives. The average waiting time on that list for public dental care, non-emergency so called, is between six and 12 months. In fact, it tends very much towards the 12 months end of that period. There are no easily available figures, I might say, on public waiting lists for dental care. Sometimes patients requiring urgent care are waitlisted on the public hospital waiting list for elective surgery, and I will say something about elective surgery in a moment. Community nursing is reaching a critical stage in the ACT.
Mr Berry: Rubbish, rubbish!
MR HUMPHRIES: Cutbacks in community nursing - the Minister might not be aware that these have occurred, but they have - - -
Mr Berry: No; changes in the way we deliver service.
MR HUMPHRIES: There have been changes all right, Minister. The changes have been extremely well felt in the community which uses community nursing.
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