Patients with chronic conditions such as diabetes could place further strain on general practice and the hospital system, following government moves to replace the Medicare dental health rebate scheme with the new Dental Health program.   

The new Commonwealth Dental Health Program aims to provide enhanced access to dental care for concession card holders with chronic medical conditions, however, unlike the previous Medicare-based program, people with chronic illnesses who do not have concession cards will not be eligible for subsidised treatment.  

Believed to be implemented around the end of August, the new program is aimed to increase dental care for important groups in the community, but there have been fears that some people with chronic illness on low to middle incomes, could be left without affordable access.

 

Prue Power, executive director of the Australian Healthcare and Hospitals Association (AHHA), said: “Patient groups including those with HIV, Hepatitis C and diabetes may experience an increase in acute episodes of oral infections [if they do not receive regular dental care], resulting in the requirement for increased GP and hospital services.”  

"This causes suffering and an unnecessary burden on our already stressed public hospital system,” she added.

She said the AHHA is urging the Government to ensure that all people with chronic illnesses can still receive treatment for related dental problems under the Government's Commonwealth Dental Health Program.

"AHHA understands that the Government has written to dentists asking them not to treat patients with chronic disease under the Medicare dental rebate scheme, as this will soon be replaced by the new Dental Health Program and the Teen Dental Program," Power said.

She pointed to 2007 research from the Australian Institute of Health and Welfare that estimated that over 43,000 avoidable public hospital admissions a year, are due to dental problems which could have been prevented through better community-based dental care.

1 August 2008

http://www.6minutes.com.au/articles/z1/view.asp?id=201668 

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