$2million plan to provide treatment to long wait public dental patients

18/2/04
Premier Geoff Gallop today announced a $2million plan to cut thousands of patients from the State's public dental waiting list.
The strategy will target all public patients who have waited longer than 14 months for general dental treatment and who are registered for treatment at clinics in Swan, Rockingham, Warwick, Albany, Bunbury and the Goldfields.
These clinics are being targeted because average waiting times here exceed the national benchmark of a 12 to 14-month wait for general or non-urgent dental care.
"At the end of January there were almost 6,000 Western Australians who had waited longer than 14 months for general dental treatment," Dr Gallop said.
"Under this initiative, all eligible patients who have waited longer than 14 months will be offered dental care.
"It is just not acceptable that people have waited this long to receive treatment."
The Premier said the $2million strategy would - as much as possible - target patients who had waited the longest and that dental care provided under the plan would start this week and be completed by the end of June.
The dental care to be provided would include general treatment, such as fillings and preventative work, and general practitioner level endodontics and periodontic treatment.
Under the $2million strategy, the majority of city patients selected for treatment would be referred to private practitioners providing services through the Metropolitan Patient Dental Subsidy Scheme (MPDSS). Some would also be referred to the Oral Health Centre of Western Australia (OHCWA).
Country patients would, in the first instance, be referred to private practitioners providing services through the Country Patient Dental Subsidy Scheme (CPDSS).
However, because there was a shortage of country dentists participating in the CPDSS, it was envisaged that the majority of country patients would be referred for their treatment to the OHCWA. These patients would receive a travel subsidy, covering the cost of their train or bus fares to Perth, and an overnight accommodation allowance of $70 per night.
Dr Gallop said the major cause of the increase of public dental patients and waiting times was the Howard Government's decision in 1996 to abolish the Commonwealth Dental Health Program.
"At the time the program was axed, the national average waiting time was just six months," he said.
"The fact is that our public dental waiting lists have blown out ever since they were dealt this blow."
The Premier said the $2million initiative was expected to reduce the number of patients on the State's public dental waiting list by 25 per cent.
Patients who had waited less than 14 months for treatment would also benefit indirectly from the initiative. As long wait list patients received treatment, patients who had waited less than 14 months would find themselves receiving treatment sooner than they would otherwise have done.
Dr Gallop said he was very pleased that Federal Labor leader Mark Latham had put the issue on the agenda with his commitment that Labor would invest $300million in Australian Dental Care.
There are 24,000 Western Australians currently on the public dental waiting list - 20,000 in the city and 4,000 in the country.
Premier's office: 9222 9475