Ms ROSOL question to HEALTH, MENTAL HEALTH and WELLBEING, Mrs ARCHER
Many Tasmanians cannot afford private dental care and rely on services at Oral Health Tasmania. The wait times they are enduring are truly terrible. One person was told they might have to wait up to five years for a regular check-up. Another has waited over four years for dentures. Another has given up on getting any dental care at all, all while finding it hard to eat and feeling too embarrassed to smile. Poor dental health can also lead to heart infections and other serious health problems. Timely dental care is critical for health and wellbeing. Yet while your government pours all its energy and money into a stadium, almost 11,000 people are waiting for a dental appointment and 1200 are waiting for dentures.
Minister, how many teeth have to unnecessarily fall out before you do what it takes to fix oral health services?
ANSWER
Honourable Speaker, I thank the member for Bass for her question. I also thank Ms Rosol for her direct advocacy in this space on behalf of her constituents. Our government is investing in oral health services and is committed to ensuring Tasmanians can gain access to the dental care they need sooner. The 2024-25 budget included investment of $4 million over two years to provide an additional 20,000 dental appointments. These 20,000 extra dental appointments are for general dental care, emergency dental care, and urgent dental and denture care for adults, children and young people. This investment is working. We are delivering a record level of dental appointments and reducing waiting lists.
For the 2024-25 financial year, the Department of Health has provided 11,723 general dental care appointments; 13,921 denture care appointments; 30,624 emergency and urgent dental appointments without patients going on a waiting list; and 42,655 appointments to children and adolescents without patients going on a waiting list. The oral health waiting list for general care for adults in September 2025 was 10,726, but this is below the September 2024 waiting list of 13,715. In September 2025, there were 15,007 general care occasions of service for adults, an average of 50.2 appointments per day. Occasions of service for children also increased to 4232 in September 2025, which is 13.6 per cent higher than in September last year.
We acknowledge that there is more work to do. That is why we are getting on the job of delivering more of these health services Tasmanians rely on.
ANSWER TO QUESTION
Oral Health Tasmania
Mrs ARCHER (Bass – Minister for Health, Mental Health and Wellbeing) – Honourable Speaker, I want to add to or clarify an answer I provided to Ms Rosol earlier. In amongst the many figures that I gave her, one was incorrect, so for clarity, in September 2025 there were 1507 general care occasions of service for adults, an average of 50.2 appointments per day. I misspoke and said 15,000, which is not correct.
