South Australian Government establishes new GP Plus Clinics

The South Australian Government has embarked on a major upgrade of its infrastructure for primary health care and public dental services for children and adults, with the establishment of a number of impressive new 'GP Plus Healthcare Centres' across Adelaide.

State-of-the-art GP Plus Healthcare Centres have recently opened in metropolitan Adelaide at Elizabeth, Aldinga, Woodville and Marion. Other centres are planned for Ceduna and Port Pirie, providing regional residents with facilities on a par with those in the city.

These centres are each located on transport hubs with ample parking and are co-located with other health services including medical, mental health, a range of allied health and breast cancer screening services. The initiative is part of the State Health Reform agenda to provide services closer to the people who need them. In all, 10 such clinics are planned around the metropolitan area.

These state-funded facilities will be complemented by jointly-funded GP Plus 'Super Clinics' at Modbury and Noarlunga, which are currently being built in partnership with the Commonwealth Government.

As an integral part of these landmark developments, South Australian Dental Service (SA Dental Service) has established modern and well-equipped new clinics for its community and school dental services within the Elizabeth and Marion GP Plus Health Care Centres. Two further dental clinics are currently under construction as part of the jointly State and Federal-funded Modbury and Noarlunga Super Clinics.

SA Dental Service Director Service Planning, Janet Weeks, said public dental sector infrastructure in SA has taken a "massive step forward" with the new and planned dental clinics.

"These initiatives represent the greatest step forward for public dental infrastructure for SA in nearly 40 years. Prior to the opening of these new clinics, public dental services were provided in old facilities that struggled to meet the requirements of contemporary clinical practice."

Ms Weeks said the GP Plus Health Care Centres offered an integrated approach to primary health care and were an "ideal" environment for providing public dental services.

These state-of-the-art dental clinics include all new dental equipment including top of the line dental chairs, digital X-ray machines and sterilization equipment, housed in large purpose-built sterilization rooms. Each clinic also includes a separate dental laboratory.

SA Dental Service most recently opened large public clinics within the Marion and Elizabeth GP Plus Health Care Centres. The Marion Community Dental Clinic located in the inner southern metropolitan area of Adelaide has 24 dental chairs. The Elizabeth Community Dental Clinic, located in the outer northern suburbs, has 20 chairs.

SA Dental Service salaried staff including dentists, dental therapists and oral health therapists provide oral health care to children and qualifying adult public patients.

General Manager, Statewide Dental Services, Dr Geoff Franklin, said the dental facilities performed a joint role - offering quality dental care to school children, and public patients, while at the same time providing placements for Adelaide University Dental and Oral Health Therapy students.

Final year students from the University of Adelaide help provide clinical care, with half of the chairs at each of the Elizabeth and Marion sites used by students under the supervision of experienced clinical staff as part of their undergraduate clinical training.

Each of the sharp architecturally designed centres boast the latest dental equipment including A-dec 500 dental units. A total of 100 chairs have been installed over the past year across existing clinics or within the GP Plus Health Care Centres - with more to come. Recent Federal budget announcements have provided a further $10.2M for public dental clinics in regional South Australia.