Member for Nanango, Deb Frecklington, says there has been a dramatic blow out of the Kingaroy Dental health wait list, and she has seen an increase in people complaining about the wait time to receive dental health care.
“Figures show that in the past year, the number of South Burnett locals waiting between 12 months and two years for general dental care in the public system has sky-rocketed from 11 to 494.
“Nanango residents are now waiting longer and longer for access to public general dental care under this incompetent Palaszczuk Labor Government.
“With so many people complaining to me, I lodged a Question on Notice in Parliament in May this year about wait times are the Dental Clinic. Since then, I have also written directly to the Minister asking for the urgent consideration of strategies to start reducing these unacceptable wait times*.
“Of huge concern are the Category 2 patients who are waiting longer than 90 days to receive treatment. In fact, only 13% of people in this Category are being treated within the recommended waiting time**.
“There are people whose health is being severely affected by not being able to see a dentist. When you have dental problems, you cannot eat property, and this then causes other health problems. For example, some of the people who have contacted me have diabetes and they find it very hard to manage their condition when they can’t chew the foods they need to eat.
“These rising wait time statistics are typical of a Labor Government. Under the former LNP Government, we undertook a blitz on dental wait lists and reduced by thousands the number of people across the Darling downs Hospital and Health Service District. The reduction was a great achievement and in fact, it was the first time since the 1990’s that no-one was waiting more than two years for treatment.
“But figures are rising rapidly and I am worried for these patients who have a very long and frustrating wait to improve their dental health,” Deb said.
“All this from the Labor party that claims to care for Queensland’s most vulnerable – what a terrible joke.
“Only the LNP has a plan to provide better services for families and build a better Queensland – so you and your family can get ahead.”
*https://data.qld.gov.au/dataset/public-dental-waiting-lists
** http://www.performance.health.qld.gov.au/hospitalperformance/oh-main.aspx?clinic=45
