Dental care rotton in regional areas

A DENTAL Health Taskforce was announced to develop a NSW Dental Health Action Plan this week.
Member for Monaro John Barilaro said there was an urgent need to work more closely with the Federal Government to develop strategies to address identified priority areas for dental health, particularly in regional areas.

‘‘On all measures of tooth loss, people outside the state’s metropolitan centres fare much worse than residents in Sydney,’’ Mr Barilaro said.

Australian Dental Association spokesman Bernard Rupasinghe said underfunding for acute and emergency dental care was the main issue.

‘‘Traditionally state and territory governments funded dental care,’’ Mr Rupasinghe said. ‘‘But no one really expects state and territory governments to step in and meet these services now.’’

Since the Whitlam Government in the 1970s there has been an ideological tussle about who has responsibility for funding dental care.

After the election of the Howard Government in 1996 federal funding was withdrawn from dental services across Australia. Once it was pulled Mr Rupasinghe said the NSW Government never attempted to meet the funding shortfall.

After the election of the Rudd Government in 2007 attempts to again fund dental care federally were blocked in the senate.

Mr Rupasinghe said any credible solution for dental care across the states or territories involved fairly substantial funding from the Federal Government.

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