A dental kaiarahi to provide chair-side assistance to the Mene Mai Ano clinical team is also been advertised, with a deadline of July 17.
Paku hopes to be able to hire two dentists, as the unit has the capacity to operate with either two dentists or a dentist and an oral health hygienist concurrently.
The service operates as part of an integrated model, with the workforce shared across fixed and mobile oral health services.
It is currently open Fridays and Saturdays, and will be shut for the Matariki long weekend.
Services include health assessments, basic restorative work, and referral to fixed clinics or secondary services where more complex care is required.
Paku said employing dentists had been “very hard to do”.
“We have had a couple of people interested, but they have gone elsewhere.”
She said the need for people to train elsewhere also added to the struggle.
“They don’t see it as a permanent place; it might be a stepping stone, they might come to Wairoa to work, and they might work themselves up, and then they move on to other places.”
She believed a potential future solution was homegrown.
“If you whakapapa to Wairoa, then it’s easier to place those people.
“Quite a few people are coming back to Wairoa that were brought up here; they have gone away, and some are coming back.”
The town has been without a permanent adult dental service since 2020.
At an initiative called Tō Waha in January to provide free dental care, Golden Apple dentist Isha Woodhams said they were overwhelmed at the number of people needing urgent help.
“I originally thought just three or four days would be enough, and now I think even if I am here for the rest of the year, we might not catch up,” Woodhams said at the time.
Health NZ’s acting general manager of specialist and community services in Hawke’s Bay, Wietske Cloo, said Hawke’s Bay was one of the districts prioritised for investment in the first tranche of the Budget 2022 mobile dental initiative.
“Since 2023, Kahungunu Executive has been working closely with Health New Zealand Hawke’s Bay to deliver a short-term solution to Wairoa’s lack of oral health services.”
Cloo said the units’ placement reduced the cost and time barriers to a population otherwise required to access oral healthcare further away.
“Mene Mai Anō is currently operating the Mobile Oral Health Unit using locum dentists and oral health hygienists who hold contracts with Health New Zealand.
“Locum clinicians are operating the service on Fridays and Saturdays, with ongoing conversations underway about the potential to extend their availability.”
Cloo said there was a shortage of dentists and oral health therapists across the sector.
“This means recruitment of oral health workforce is a challenge for new services such as this one, and particularly in rural communities.”
Michaela Gower joined Hawke’s Bay Today in 2023 and is based out of the Hastings newsroom. She covers Dannevirke and Hawke’s Bay news and loves sharing stories about farming and rural communities.