The NobleDentist Blog

Waiting Lists Grow While Senate Delays

Posted in Dental Health News by Dion Kramer on September 17, 2008

This is an article by Alison Mills that was recently published in the Parramatta Sun – New South Wales, Australia.

A stalemate in the Senate over public dental funding will bring little relief to the estimated 650,000 people nationwide waiting to see a dentist.

On the eve of the 2007 federal election, the Howard Government expanded the Medicare dental scheme but the Rudd Government stopped funding the scheme in June 2008.

Attempts to replace that scheme with a new Commonwealth Dental Health Program are stuck in the Senate with coalition senators threatening to refuse to pass the necessary legislation.

Parramatta MP Julie Owens said the previous government’s “failed’’ scheme was “poorly targeted’‘.

“If the Commonwealth Dental Program doesn’t go ahead and people in my electorate miss out on vital treatment, it will be because the Liberal and National parties are refusing to support dental care for those most in need,’’ Ms Owens said.

However Liberal Senator Marise Payne argued the coalition’s scheme was “highly successful and in high demand, providing more than 300,000 dental services in the first three months’‘.

Ms Owens said dental care was consistently raised by her constituents during the election campaign and the government had committed to spend $290million on the program and provide 327,2000 dental services in NSW.

The Westmead Centre for Oral Health, the largest dental teaching facility in the southern hemisphere, treated more than 170,000 patients in 2007.

A Sydney West Area Health Service spokeswoman said the centre was “waiting for additional funding … to reduce the dental waiting list’‘.

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