Paper Petition

The petition of the residents of the State of Queensland draws to the attention of the House: • Queensland Health's cost cutting exercise to limit the number of Public Patients including Aboriginals, Children and emergency dental patients that dentists working in Public Sector Health Services can treat; • the growing dental waiting lists resulting from Queensland Health's cost cutting; • the need for the Public Sector Dental Workforce Scheme, which has been operational in other State and Territory public sector workforces since 2003, to be operational in Queensland; and • the lack of dental services in Dirranbandi and St George and Roma.

Your petitioners therefore request the House to: • stop limiting the number of public patients that dentists employed by Queensland Health can treat and to ensure provision of adequate funding to treat those public patients; • immediately pass legislation to allow the operation in Queensland of the Public Sector Dental Workforce Scheme which is designed to alleviate shortages of dentists in rural and regional areas; and • immediately allow the public sector dentist based in St George to open clinics in Dirranbandi and Mungindi and appoint two dentists to the vacant positions in Roma.