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Speech to Open Selby House Dental Hub

Speech to Open Selby House Dental Hub
175 Adelaide Road, Newtown, Wellington
12.15pm Thursday 11th February 2016

Kia ora tātau, good afternoon ladies and gentlemen.

Thank you Virginia and Bee Healthy Dental Service for inviting me to open the Selby House dental clinic, I am delighted to be able to join you.

The opening of Selby House marks the completion of the capital development component of the improved model of care for the oral health of children across the Wellington, Kapiti and Hutt Valley regions.

This is a major milestone in Capital and Coast DHB and Hutt Valley DHB’s implementation of the reinvestment programme for the Community Oral Health Service.

The completion of this new facility funded under the Community Oral Health Service (COHS) reinvestment programme, reflects many years of careful planning and project management.

The new seven chair clinic will be staffed from 8.00 am to 4.30 pm Monday to Friday, throughout the whole year, including most school holidays, giving certainty of access for the community in Newtown and the surrounding areas.

These opening hours provide flexibility for families and whānau to attend with their children wherever possible.

Selby House is the largest of six new dental hubs opening across the Wellington region in the next few months.

This clinic and the other hub clinics in the region will be supported by 11 mobile services to provide diagnostic, preventive and treatment services, and will improve access to services for children.

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Improving health outcomes and reducing disparities, especially for Māori tamariki and Pacific children, is both a challenge and a priority for both DHBs.

Both DHBs will be continuing to work towards:
• increasing early enrolment of pre-school children
• increasing delivery of preventive dental care
• encouraging greater use of DHB-funded dental services by teenagers
• reaching out to more children and families, particularly among Māori whānau and Pacific families to enjoy the benefits of good health.

The Government’s priority is to improve the oral health of children and adolescents in particular, through prevention, education, early intervention and treatment.

This is because there is good evidence to show that oral health in early childhood predicts oral health in adulthood, so preventing tooth decay in young children has lifetime benefits.

Oral health care services for children and adolescents up to their 18th birthday are free in New Zealand and we need to make sure people are enrolled and using these services as early as possible.

The Community Oral Health Service has undergone a large transformation over the last seven years with $116m in new capital funding provided to District Health Boards (DHBs) to build and redevelop dental facilities, and an additional $32m each year to support services that provide free basic dental care to New Zealand children.

The new Community Oral Health Service operates from 170 fixed clinics and 169 mobile units, working at over 1263 sites around New Zealand.

The new facilities are almost unrecognisable from the school dental service that many adults will remember – they have been transformed in appearance, and also in the experience of oral health care they provide for children.

The new facilities meet 21st century design standards, and the improved model of care delivered from them is oriented towards a proactive focus on family/whānau participation, health education for self-care, prevention of ill-health, and early intervention.

In addition, changes have been made to the model of care offered by the community oral health service.

These changes include:
• encouraging parents, caregivers and family/whānau to accompany their children to oral health visits
• increasing engagement and supporting good oral health practice at home
• strengthening linkages with primary health care to increasing preschool enrolments and referrals, and
• using dental assistants and support staff to enhance productivity and quality of care.

Nationally, I am pleased to report that there has been significant improvements achieved over recent years, with pre-school oral health enrolments increasing, very high enrolment among primary school children and greater numbers of children starting school with no tooth decay.

The proportion of children with no history of decay has increased since 2005, while the average severity of decay has decreased.

Utilisation of dental services by adolescents has also increased significantly, suggesting more young people are establishing behaviours that will generate better oral health into adulthood.

However, there is still room for further improvement.

Increasing the number of pre-schoolers enrolling in the service early will continue to help to increase the numbers of children who start school without any decay.

It is important that parents and whānau attend clinic appointments alongside their children whenever possible, and support children so they can enjoy better oral health, especially for tamariki Māori and Pacific children.

As adults, we all know what we should do to protect our teeth.

Our children need to learn the importance of good oral health habits from us, at a young age.

Community involvement is also vital and is reflected in the partnerships with local schools, Kohanga Reo and preschool centres, and with Plunket and Tamariki Ora service providers.

Residents in the Wellington region that will benefit from the new dental clinics, also receive the benefits of fluoridated water.

Populations residing in areas with fluoridated water are known to have a lower lifetime incidence of tooth decay, however many regions in New Zealand do not currently have fluoridated water.
Some of you may have heard my comments on the radio recently about fluoridation.

The Government believes that fluoridation is a safe, effective and affordable way to prevent tooth decay, and continues to consider a range of options for increasing water fluoridation across New Zealand.

I would like to see all New Zealand children enjoying good oral health.

I would urge families and whānau to help support children and adolescents to allow them to get a great start in life, and develop oral health habits that will last a lifetime.

There are already encouraging signs of improvement in child oral health outcomes from the reinvestment programme and with family and whānau involvement, alongside the care delivered by our clinicians every day, we will really begin to see improvements in the outcomes for all ages, and for the future generations of New Zealand.

I look forward to hearing more about these developments for children in the Wellington region, as the team at Selby House and the other regional clinics take full advantage of the new facilities.

I would also like to take this opportunity to acknowledge my parliamentary colleague Hon Annette King, for her role as a driving force in the mid-2000s for the oral health reinvestment programme.

ENDS

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