Report on Victorian Public Dental Services

The Victorian Minister for Human Services, The Hon. Bronwyn Pike, today released 'Your Hospitals: A six-monthly report on Victoria's public hospitals'.

On page 34 of this publication a number of graphs and statistics regarding public dental services are highlighted, including the following figures (as at June 2005):

• Funding for dental health services increased by $50 million or 67 percent from 1999-2000.
• In 2004-05 there were 425,193 visits to community dental clinics. There were 27,079 or 7 percent more visits to community dental clinics in 2004-05 compared to 2003-04.
• For the first time since the Commonwealth Dental Health Program ceased in 1996, the average time to treatment for people needing care has decreased. From June 2004 to June 2005, the average time to treatment for dentures decreased from 34 months to 28 months (18 percent), while the average time to treatment for restorative dental care fell from 29 months to 28 months (3.4 percent).