Dental Association welcomes National’s targeting better health outcomes

The New Zealand Dental Association (NZDA) welcomes the National party’s concept of reintroducing health targets to improve timely access to hospital dental services for New Zealanders.

"Of the five targets announced, two have the potential to considerably ease the pain being felt by Kiwis who are waiting for dental assessments and surgeries in the hospital setting," says NZDA president Amanda Johnston.

"Shorter wait times for first specialist assessments and surgeries would make a real difference for thousands of kiwis languishing on unacceptably long wait lists," says Johnston.

"First visits to hospital dental units are a first specialist assessment, just as they are for any other medical and surgical specialties," she says.

"However, for reasons that make little sense, dental has historically been treated differently and it is unclear from the announcement whether dental would be afforded the same status and priority as other specialist medical and surgical services."

"For children, and adults with disabilities or complex medical issues, access to hospital dental services relies on hospital dental units being sufficiently resourced," says Johnston.

"For some time, our hospital dental teams have been experiencing inadequate access to operating theatres and workforce shortages, in the same way as other hospital surgical specialties."

"These issues, along with many others, have driven senior hospital dentists to join other senior doctors in going on strike this month," she says.

"We hope National is paying attention to the issues and if elected, will improve resourcing of our hospital dental units so that dentists can deliver the care needed by a growing number of Kiwis," says Johnston.

"Of course, the number of people requiring hospital level care would be reduced significantly by improved access and affordability of community based dental services for children and adults."

"To date, only Labour, Greens, TOP and Tē Pati Māori have offered policy that would seek to address the shortfall in access to community dental care to assist in preventing problems before they reach our hospital dental teams."