Mildura residents have even better access to public dental care close to home with the opening of an expanded dental clinic at Sunraysia Community Health Services.
Officially opening the service’s new dental and administration facilities today, Member for Northern Victoria Region, Candy Broad said the $5.7 million project had doubled the number of dental chairs and next year would be training our future dentists.
“We are taking action to give Victorians a better health system, by building more dental clinics and training more dental technicians,” Ms Broad said.
“This expanded facility will make it easier for Mildura residents to access dental care and will play a critical role in increasing the number of dentists working in rural and regional areas.”
Mr Broad said the Brumby Labor Government delivered $14.5 million to establish a pre-clinical teaching laboratory for the new Regional Dental School at La Trobe University Bendigo and satellite clinics at Wodonga, Mildura and Melton.
“This facility is part of our commitment to strengthen dental services across rural Victoria and to support rural health services like Sunraysia Community Health Services,” she said.
“The expansion of the public dental clinic at Sunraysia Community Health Services has increased the number of dental chairs from four to eight.
“This also allows for the clinical placement of dental students in Mildura, with the first round of students to start using the facility in January 2011.
“The project has also enabled the relocation of a number of Sunraysia Community Health’s administrative services to the new site.”
Ms Broad said the Brumby Labor Government had also committed $17.57 million over four years to support the clinical training of the dental workforce in Wodonga, Melton and Mildura.
“This will play an integral role in attracting and retaining high-calibre dentists to stay and practice in Mildura, now and into the future,” she said.
“We are committed to providing state-of-the-art health facilities and supporting the training of health professionals in rural Victoria.
“The Brumby Labor Government has worked hard to support all Victorian health services to ensure that people living in rural areas have the same access to quality healthcare as all other Victorians.
“We are committed to delivering essential oral health care closer to where people live and building a sustainable and growing health workforce for regional Victoria.”