Proposals sought for Adelaide Dental School

Higher education providers are invited to submit a proposal to partner with the State Government to provide an integrated public dental service and dental school. Health Minister Jack Snelling said the Government was looking to develop a new approach that will provide better access to care for public dental patients and improve training facilities for students.

"The Adelaide Dental Hospital has been run by SA Health, in conjunction with the University of Adelaide, for many years," Mr Snelling said.

"The dental hospital and school are key components in delivering vital general and specialist dental care to eligible South Australians.

"However, the hospital's training facility and a number of the dental chairs are in need of a significant upgrade.

Mr Snelling said this was why it was timely to go to the market and gauge the level of interest in working with us to develop a new, integrated model to deliver dental training and public dental care in South Australia.

"Through this process, we will ultimately look to ensure we're using our public dental care resources in the most effective way, to provide a sustainable dental workforce into the future and deliver a state-of-the-art dental training facility for students," he said.

"The option of submitting a proposal for the Adelaide-based dental school and service is open to all higher education providers, including the University of Adelaide."

Mr Snelling said around 11,500 public patients are treated by dental students each year through the dental hospital.

"The University's dental students gain much of their clinical experience in public dental clinics treating public patients," he said.

"However, many of the services are only provided during term time, which means a number of the undergraduate student dental chairs sit idle for around 20 weeks of the year.

"Through the process, we will see if there is a mutually beneficial way in which we can secure more consistent access to the dental chairs throughout the year for our public patients.

"Part of this process will also involve discussions with the universities around appropriately sharing the cost of training students and any future capital works that may be required.

"The Government will also work with the SA branch of the Australian Dental Association (ADA) throughout the process so that the dental profession can assist with developing the best model for the future of the school.

Mr Snelling said the State Government was committed to ensuring we have the right amount of graduates available to maintain the State's workforce, which equates to around 25 graduate dentists each year.

"At the moment, there are significantly more graduates coming through the dental school than are required in South Australia," he said.

"We will have to consider the merit of tax payers contributing to the costs of training dentists, including full fee paying and international students, who ultimately end up treating patients overseas or interstate."

The process will have no impact on students currently studying at the University of Adelaide's Dental School, or public patients currently receiving treatment.

It is expected the process to identify a preferred proposal will take approximately six months.