Committee hands down recommendations for rural dental health

The final report has just been released, after the Australian Senate resolved a committee should be established to address dental services in Australia and its impact on communities.

The committee was formed in March and four public hearings were held across the country, which attracted 168 submissions.

The committee settled on 35 recommendations, including the implementation of a taskforce to identify opportunities to integrate oral and dental health care into primary health care.

Several key recommendations from the National Rural Health Alliance were incorporated into the final report and chief executive officer Susi Tegen said the report needed to help deliver a clearer path for rural and remote dental health care.

"The delivery of health services is totally different to how it is delivered in urban centres," she said.

"About 7 million people live in regional and remote Australia and have basically been bundled in with urban centres for their health care."

NRHA put forward a submission to the report, citing a need for a National Rural Health Strategy.

"Everything is more expensive to deliver in rural areas, with bigger distances to travel and it has a population health status which is much lower than urban centres. So, by not having a health strategy, it allows these barriers to be hidden," Ms Tegen said.

An underspend of $6.55 billion per annum in health funding for rural, remote and regional communities needed to be addressed through a targeted, national approach, Ms Tegen says.

"The underspend is across all different types of services delivered to a community or individual. There is less expenditure for health if you do not live in urban Australia," she said.

"Why are we not funding services which are fit for purpose in these communities? It is why we need a national strategy - we need to be accountable."

The NRHA have called on state and federal governments to come together and discuss how a rural health strategy would be prioritised.

"We also proposed a Primary Care Rural Integrated Multidisciplinary Health Services model and it was acknowledged in the report. If funded appropriately, it would support multidisciplinary teams including access to dental and oral health practitioners in rural areas," Ms Tegen said.

In the final report, the committee recommended the government considered supporting universities located in regional areas to establish dental schools or expand current courses, as well as allocate specific course places for regional and remote students.

It also recommended the government considered funding evidence-based programs to incentivise dental and oral health providers to practice in regional areas and Australian Dental Association SA spokesperson Angelo Papageorgiou welcomed this as a priority for rural communities.

"There is maldistribution and a reduced number of dental practitioners in rural and remote areas, it is certainly part of the overall issue," Dr Papageorgiou said.

"We know there are three-times more dental practitioners in metro areas and people in rural areas suffer from greater dental disease, tooth decay and visit a dentist less often. This means, generally, they have poorer access to dental health services," Dr Papageorgiou said.

According to Dr Papageorgiou, rural areas experienced significant barriers to oral health care.

"This disparity is not only alarming, it is also not acceptable and needs to be addressed," he said.

"This is what the committee is really allowing us to do - address this disparity between urbanised areas, compared to rural and remote areas."

Dr Papageorgiou believed the formation of a committee was critical for the overall health of regional people.

"It is not just about improving oral health, it is also about wellbeing and general health. We know primary health care is a right every person should have and if the government take on the recommendations, it means equitable short and long-term health outcomes, which are sustainable, can be achieved," he said.

But, SA Oral Health Plan Monitoring Group has also been actively looking at strategies to encourage more dentists to move to rural areas.

"There are strategies and moves being made locally in SA but there needs to be a national reform to ensure people living in regional and remote areas are not neglected," Dr Papageorgiou said.

"Places such as Mt Gambier, Riverland and the Iron Triangle, already have services, so the challenge is improving access for those living outside of those main regions."

Dr Papageorgiou believed despite not all of the committee's 35 recommendations being necessarily "agreeable" most were headed in the right direction.

"There is a barrier with the cost of providing care, the infrastructure and difficultly to attract a workforce to isolated areas," he said.

"We need to build a skilled workforce which is about ensuring innovative and sustainable workplace models for rural health care."

The next steps to further the recommendations will require the report to be tabled in the Senate with the federal government required to respond within three months.