Dental school shock

Press, 20 October 1980, Page 1

Dental school shock

Wellington reporter The decision to close the Christchurch and Auckland dental nurses’ training schools has shocked the Public Service Association, which says it will fight to protect its members’ jobs and job prospects. The Minister of Health (Mr Gair) has announced that the schools will close when the present firstyear classes graduate in February, 1982. A spokesman in Web lington said the P.SA. was appalled by the severity of the decision; it had been afforded no Chance to make direct representations on behalf of its members. It totally opposed the decision. Since 1977, the P.S.A.had recommended that the Government consider employing school dental nurses in other related areas, in the' light of falling school rolls and less dental disease. Such redeployment would have

avoided an unnecessary and abrupt reduction of the training schools. The Government had not considered these sub-, missions, said the spokesman. Mr Gair told the conference of the State Dental Nurses’ Institute in Auckland that the closing of the two training schools was, ironically, a mile- • stone in the progress dental nurses were making in preventing dental disease. ■ ' ; ■ No staff member of either school would be worse off financially, Mr Gair said. ■ Every effort would be made to reduce to a minimum, possible disruptions to personal lives and careers. Every staff member involved had received a letter from the DirectorGeneral of Health (Dr H. J. H. Hiddlestone) advising . of the closing and a committee had been set up , to advise on redeployment I Mr Gair said he knew I there had been widespread 1

fears that the Government intended to disband the school dental service. But neither the Government nor the Health Department contemplated such a move. However, staff numbers had to be geared to the demand for dental care. In 1975, there had been 623,000 children enrolled with the school dental service: by 1980, the number had fallen to 580,000. This number was likely to fall even further over the next decade. The Education Department had estimated a drop of 83,000 in primary and intermediate school enrolments over the next 10 years. The average number of fillings per child had fallen from five in 1965 to 1.78 in 1979, Mr Gair said. Thus commitments could be met with fewer school dental nurses. - „ .'

The Government was not happy about the oversupply of dental nurses, he said. This had led' to a Health Department review of training activities. Its aims were to determine the annual intake of student nurses, to determine the number of schools for nurses and, if the number of schools was to be reduced below the present three, which should close. Mr Gair said that about 86 first-year and 85 second-year students were in training. The review had shown that an average of 25 graduates a year would be enough for the period from 1983 to 1987. It had been decided that the student intake in 1981 would be 30 and that .in subsequent years it would be sufficient to have 55 students in training at any one time. “For 55 students, only one school for dental nurses is needed,” Mr Gair

said. “The Government has decided that the school to, be retained should be Wellington.” Its central siting was a main reason for choosing the Wellington school; it also had the biggest patient group — 9700, against 7600 in Auckland and 3600 in Christchurch. • A third reason was that central Wellington schools had no dental clinics, and no land at many of them on which clinics could be built.

The Auckland and Christchurch schools would not take in any students in 1981. and would close when their present first-year classes graduated in 1982, Mr Gair said.

In Christchurch, the P.S.A.’s Canterbury secretary (Mr J. E. Cornhill) said that the 27 staff had been notified “out of the blue” on Friday that the school -would officially close. These 27 included back-up staff as well as tutors. Mr Cornhill said the closing was “a terribly backward step,” and that other possibilities should

have been considered. At present nurses looked only at primary school children; there was no reason why they should not look at secondary pupils, too. They could also teach oral hygiene. Dental decay might be reduced at the moment, but for how long if there were not enough nurses to maintain a good service? The- Health Department had not told the school’s staff what their future employment possibilities would be, Mr Cornhill said.

“The Otago Dental School has recently received a $3.5 million Government grant to extend its activities. It makes you wonder,” he said. The . principal of the Christchurch school (Dr R. B. Nevin) declined to comment. In Auckland yesterday, delegates to the dental nurses’ conference saw the closing as the first step in

winding down • school dental clinics. ■ '

“We expected a cut in the student intakes, the closing of one training school, and possibly the phasing out of a second but we did not expect anything like said one delegate, . X ' '/Nurses said they' feared that the dental health of children would suffer; as there would be fewer ’people to implement extensive preventive pro« grammes. > Patient-nurse ratios, already climbing because of the Government’s sinkinglid policy, are expected to increase.