8. JO GOODHEW (National—Aoraki) Link to this
to the Minister of Health
What evidence is there that the Government’s proposed community-based clinics will improve access for at-risk children?
Hon PETE HODGSON (Minister of Health) Link to this
There is evidence from a number of sources, including a University of Otago study, that the Government’s plan will significantly improve access. The community model is also showing early, but significant, promise in those Australian states where it has been deployed. It should also be noted that the community-based clinics will make it easier for preschool children to access services, which is especially important as so many of the young people are developing cavities before they turn 5.
What research-based evidence does the Minister have that at-risk 3 to 10-year-olds with rotting teeth will attend large, centralised clinics in commercial areas rather than clinics in their neighbourhood school?
I think the member might perhaps slightly misunderstand the Government’s approach. Although some school dental clinics will close—in fact, a number of them already have, and a number of others are barely open; they are open for only a few hours a week—many other school dental facilities will remain, a number of them will be expanded, and a number of them will have access for the public through a separate entrance so that they do not have to go through the school-grounds, etc. In addition to that, new community facilities will be built, and the links between those community facilities and the schools and early childhood facilities in the region will need to be built, as well.
Ann HartleyA very good question—we have spent a little time on it today—and I will say again: because there were not enough dental therapists. Even today school clinics are, on average, open less than half the time—that is, for those schools that have them. We could, of course, have started to build new dental facilities in our first year, but there would have been no one to work in them. So my colleague the Hon Annette King decided that building dental therapist schools to train people was the first thing that needed to be done, and that is exactly what she did. The fact that New Zealand ceased training dental therapists during the 1990s is, in my view, a scandal. The size of the workforce halved, and it is no wonder that the dental health of our children is declining as a result.
Barbara StewartWill his ministry be funding public education campaigns in the near future, to cover shortfalls in free oral health-care; if not, why not?
Yes, indeed. Public education campaigns are an integral part of the vision for oral health-care. As the member may be aware, given her knowledge of the subject, an advisory group is meeting in the very near future to examine and advance that initiative.
When the Minister announced that the percentage of children who are caries-free is at an all-time low, was he referring to the Labour Government’s 1999 to 2005 record in the area of the district health board of Waikato, where the percentage has fallen from 47 percent to 34 percent; the area of the district health board of Wairarapa, where it has fallen from 53 percent to 41 percent; the area of the district health board of Wanganui, where it has fallen from 49 percent to 39 percent; or, horrifyingly, the area of the district health board of Northland, where it has fallen from 43 percent to 33 percent?
It is interesting that the National Party today does not face the fact that it was a National Government that caused this situation. What is more, my predecessor, the Hon Annette King, herself a dental therapist, got on to the problem as fast as anyone could have done. There was no way of getting those schools to open earlier, because the National Government held the Treasury benches, and despite the fact that Annette King in Opposition said time and time again that it had to be fixed, that Government, when it was in power, did nothing.
How does the Minister respond to the verdict of the MidCentral District Health Board Dental Service Clinical Director, Phil Marshall, who said the people who need dental care the most are the least likely to visit the new, centrally based community clinics, and: “The lower socio-economic groups will not access those facilities and they are the people who need it the most.”?
The aforementioned clinical director, Phil Marshall, will be one of those putting together a business plan for his district. Therefore, that gentleman and others like him around the country have the solution in their hands. In the same press statement, however, the same gentleman said: “The best time to fix the roof is when the sun is shining—in this case, when there is money around. We will need to do it quickly and well.”
Dr Jonathan Coleman Link to this
Does the Minister realise how silly it sounds when he angrily blames National for the state of children’s teeth, when one considers that most of those kids were not even born when the Government changed in 1999; and does he realise that the public just does not believe him?
I thank the member for his question; it allows me to rehearse history one more time. The number of dental therapists in this country roughly halved. It was a little over 1,000; it fell to 550. The reason for that was that during the 1990s the National Government stopped training dental therapists in this country altogether. I ask members to imagine if we had stopped training brain surgeons or plumbers; well, we did this with dental therapists—we stopped. It was beyond belief. Therefore, the dental clinics closed, the workforce fell further, and the kids’ teeth are suffering. To begin repairing this unbelievable problem one had to open new dental therapy training schools. My colleague the Hon Annette King did that. We have got both of them running, and running hard, and the graduates are starting to come through.
Is it not time the Minister confirmed that despite a high pile of visions, strategies, and reviews, 7 years of promises by the Labour Government, and a former dental nurse having been in charge of health, the lack of progress on addressing oral health problems is best highlighted by a press release from the Prime Minister, Helen Clark, and the Minister of Health, entitled: Labour Revamping Dental Services for Young NZers, dated 31 August 2005—so no progress at all, Minister?
It is almost beyond belief, is it not? The long and short of it is that in the Budget that was announced by my colleague in May of this year about $100 million of capital was put on the table, and, as well as that, some operating funding is needed to pay these people whom we have trained. They have just come out of school. Maybe they came out in November last year. Some of them—the first lot—actually came out of the Auckland University of Technology the year before. They have only just arrived in the workforce. We are building dental clinics for them to work in, and as the numbers of dental therapists increase—and they will increase each year—we will have buildings ready for them to go into. That is what good planning is about. Bad planning is when we stop training dental therapists in this country completely.
I seek leave to table the 1-year-old press release from the Prime Minister and the Minister of Health entitled: Labour Revamping Dental Services for Young NZers.
Madam SPEAKERI seek leave to table the verdict of the MidCentral District Health Board Dental Service Clinical Director, Phil Marshall, in yesterday’s Manawatu Standard.