Adelaide to Host Dental Health Forum

South Australia’s concerned with the state of Australia’s dental health care system will attend a forum in Adelaide today, in support of the HSU’s campaign for a national solution to the dental care crisis, which has people waiting up to ten years for treatment.

HSU National Secretary, Craig Thomson said health workers wanted all major political parties to commit to expanding Medicare to cover dental care for the elderly, low income earners and children under 18.

Mr Thomson said HSU members working in public dental care services run by the states and territories said they were totally unable to meet the demand, with an estimated 650,000 people waiting up to ten years for treatment.

"The public dental care waiting lists are really just the tip of the iceberg when you look at the number of people who say they have put off dental care they need because of the cost," Mr Thomson said.

The union recently released new research showing that the lack of affordable dental care services is affecting millions of Australians.

"In South Australia alone, 53 per cent of people in the seat of Kingston and 56 per cent of people in the seat of Wakefield said they have put off having treatment due to the cost, compared to the national average, which is 50 per cent.

Conducted in eight Coalition marginal seats across the country, the Auspoll research found that:

• Half the adults surveyed said they had put off dental treatment that they needed because of the cost

• 15 per cent of parents said they had put off treatment their kids required because of the cost

• 73 per cent of people said they would be more likely to support a party that extended Medicare to cover free basic dental treatment and;

• 73 per cent of people rejected the Federal Government's argument that providing public dental care for low income earners should be solely the responsibility of the states and territories.

"It is unacceptable in a country like Australia where we pride ourselves on the quality of healthcare to be not doing more to ensure people have access to dental care.

"The union's preferred option is to extend Medicare to ensure free basic dental treatment is available to the elderly and to children. We also want an expansion of state services for low-income families.

"But we acknowledge there is more than one way to tackle this problem and that requires people to work together. Health workers and the public are sick and tired of governments not working together to fix problems and the cost and availability of dental care services needs to be a high priority for both Labor and the Federal Government."

"It is clear that the state and territory government's need to do more on dental care but without a national solution they will not fix the problem," Mr Thomson said.

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