DENTAL CLINICS.

Auckland Star, Volume LXII, Issue 96, 24 April 1931, Page 6

DENTAL CLINICS.

CHARGE FOR CHILDREN. INTIMATION RECEIVED. "HARDSHIP CLAUSE" PROVIDED. The chairman of tlie Otahuhu Dental Clinic Committee (Mr C. R. Petrie) has received from the Director of Dental Hygiene advice that in future local communities must bear a greater share of the cost of clinics. After careful consideration, says the Director, it has been decided that, in addition to their present obligation, local committees shall be required to contribute at the rate of £30 per annuni for eac lidental officer or nurse regularly stationed in the district from April 1. Power will be given committees to impose a small charge for each child receiving treatment, and no child is to be excluded because parents are unable to pay. It is hoped that with a return to prosperity the position can be reviewed. Xo official information on the subject has yet been received by the Auckland Education Board, but the chairman, Mr. A. Burns, said to-day that the instruction from the Director of Dental Hygiene would probably be general to all clinics. Mr. Burns explained the Education Board had no control over the clinics, and that they are not financed by the ordinary education funds. "It may be that a small charge will have to be made on parents," he said, "but there will probably be a provision to meet urgent cases in which the breadwinner is not in a position to pay."