Election result - impact on dental services

With the return of the Labor Government, the major impact on dental services will be establishment of expanded clinical training facilities at Bendigo and some regional centres, associated with the creation of a new Bachelor of Dental Science course (BDSc) at LaTrobe University.

This measure is intended to train more dentists who will be willing to work in rural areas, and thus address the serious maldistribution of the dental workforce in Victoria. Its success will depend on allocation of Commonwealth Supported Places to the BDSc course, as the Victorian Government's commitment is limited to building training facilities rather than funding student enrolments.

These proposed additional training places come on top of additional places being offered at Melbourne University for dentists, dental hygienists and dental therapists. The combined impact of these additional places is such that there is no longer as much concern that in the medium to long term, Victoria will suffer a dental workforce shortage (although maldistribution could remain an issue).

The ALP did not commit any additional recurrent funds in their election platform to dental waiting list reduction, having announced significant reductions in the length of those lists during the election campaign. VOHA remains concerned that in many areas of the State, both rural and metropolitan, people are waiting unacceptably long times for access to basic dental care.

VOHA will now focus on advocating further improvements to public dental health via the next State Budget, which the new Labor Government will commence preparing almost immediately.