Cherbourg gets grant for new dental school
Federal Health Minister Nicola Roxon has announced that Cherbourg will receive a grant of $600,000 which will be used to open a new dental school.
Ms Roxon announced the funding during her tour of Queensland, where she has been discussing plans for a Commonwealth takeover of health services with representatives from local health boards. Ms Roxon said the Cherbourg community was in dire need of additional dental services, with patients currently being forced to travel long distances and wait long periods of time for treatment.
The $600,000 grant will be controlled by Griffith University, which initially raised awareness of the shortage of dentists in the area and is already responsible for a successful dental school program. The university was looking for a suitable area to build the new dental school as they wanted to make sure the school would be used to help people in serious need of dental care; the Cherbourg application was strong because the community suffers from a severe shortage of dentists and consequently, dental health is poor amongst residents.
Thousands of people miss out on local dental health services in Australia because the country is so vast and dentist are not distributed in a way that suits residents in more rural locations; dentists tend to gather around large cities and towns and people in smaller towns often miss out.
It is hoped that the new dental school will not only benefit residents in the area but will also provide excellent teaching and practical training for students; by educating students in smaller cities and towns, authorities hope that they will be more inclined to work in these locations when they qualify.
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