THE Queensland health minister says the state’s public dental waiting list is the best it’s been since the 1990s, but some patients still have to wait up to two years for treatment.
LAWRENCE Springborg says the backlog of patients has been cleared thanks to increased investment in oral health.
He says that when the Liberal National Party came to power in 2012, more than 62,000 patients had been waiting longer than the accepted benchmark of two years for treatment. Some had been waiting up to 10 years. “That is now zero, which is a remarkable achievement,” he said in a statement on Friday. Mr Springborg said more dentists had been hired and there had been greater investment in dental health facilities. He also credited a new voucher system that allowed public patients to visit private dentists to have the work done.