Thousands of Gympie patients on public dental waiting list

THOUSANDS of Gympie patients are on the waiting list to see a dentist through the public dental service.

Almost 3000 people in Gympie are on a waiting list for dental treatment. Picture: File

THOUSANDS of Gympie patients are on the waiting list to see a dentist through the public dental service.

Almost 3000 people aged 16 years and above are on oral health waiting lists in the Gympie region.

More than 200 of those have been waiting eight to nine years for treatment, and 724 have been waiting more than five years.

Figures now accessible through the State Government's "open data revolution" reveal 2360 Gympie patients had been waiting more than a year for public dental treatment and 1952 had been waiting longer than two years.

Premier Campbell Newman publicly revealed Queensland's dental clinic waiting lists this month as part of his commitment "to being open and transparent".

"Posting this data will go a long way to helping us restore accountability and confidence in our public health system," Mr Newman said.

For anyone logging on to the website data.qld.gov.au understanding the columns of figures is not easy.

Queensland Health deputy director general Professor Michael Cleary said this week the department provided the most extensive public dental health service in Australia, with more than 40% of Queenslanders eligible for public dental services. About 80% of children were also eligible, he said.

"In addition, unlike every other state except New South Wales, there are no fees for public sector dentistry in Queensland," he said.

The Gympie Hospital dental clinic has five full-time dentists and a dental prosthetist who works one day a week. One of those dental positions is in the process of being filled, Sunshine Coast Hospital and Health Service chief executive Kevin Hegarty said this week.

"Clients who are prioritised by the oral health call centre in accordance with the Oral Health Services wait list guidelines as requiring emergency care include those who have been referred by a medical practitioner for urgent dental assessment and care due to a serious medical condition, such as commencement of chemotherapy or radiotherapy, cardiac or transplant surgery," Mr Hegarty said.

"Clients who contact the oral health call centre are triaged according to their treatment needs and the wait list guidelines.

"Many clients are assessed as requiring a priority assessment by a dentist. If they have no urgent problems, they would be allocated to the priority six wait list.

"If a client is requesting replacement of a set of full dentures, they would be placed on a priority list to be assessed by a dentist."

Chew on this

• Gympie people on public dental waiting list - 2919
• Gympie people on list more than one year - 2360
• Gympie people on list more than two years - 1952
• Gympie people on list more than five years - 724
• Gympie people on list 8-9 years - 202