Government accused of abandoning school dental service, Redman
Author: Terry Redman
Published on: 11-June-2008
Stirling MLA Terry Redman took the Health Minister to task in State Parliament
yesterday, over what Mr Redman says is the State Government’s abandonment of
the mobile dental service to Western Australian country schools.
“The mobile dental service to schools at Bridgetown, Greenbushes, Boyup Brook
and Nannup is the seventh to close in country WA this year. This is a clear
indictment on the Government’s neglect of this crucial child health service,” Mr
Redman said.
“The Health Minister’s perpetual response for many months has been that “the
Health Department is developing a workforce plan to ensure the future of an
adequate public dental work force” but the longer we wait for that plan, the more
closures we see.
“As I made clear in the Parliament yesterday, it’s time for the Minister to get this
workforce plan onto the table, so we can see precisely how this Government intends
to deliver appropriate dental care to country children into the future.
“The reality is that by continually stalling on solutions and failing to address obvious
wage and training issues, the Government is leaving the mobile dental service to die
a death of a thousand cuts.”
Mr Redman said the Western Australian mobile dental service, which was once
viewed as a model of best practice by other States, was now at crisis point and
urgent intervention was needed to ensure its survival.
“It is not good enough to use Western Australia’s labour squeeze to justify these
closures when the real problem is that wages for school dental operators have been
allowed to stagnate to a level that is well below par with those offered in the private
dental sector,” he said.
Mr Redman said that while it was heartening that the service to South Coast schools
including Mt Barker, Denmark and Cranbrook had re-opened, country people had
lost confidence in the long-term future of the State’s mobile dental care resource.
“I will be keeping the pressure on the Health Minister to come up with a tangible and
practical plan to turn the viability of this vital regional service around, as a matter of
urgency,” Mr Redman said.
