{"id":549184,"date":"2026-07-29T07:30:37","date_gmt":"2026-07-29T07:30:37","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/549184\/"},"modified":"2026-07-29T07:30:37","modified_gmt":"2026-07-29T07:30:37","slug":"a-gap-that-needs-filling-report-reveals-issues-due-to-lack-of-dental-clinic-at-gisborne-hospital","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/549184\/","title":{"rendered":"A gap that needs filling: Report reveals issues due to lack of dental clinic at Gisborne Hospital"},"content":{"rendered":"

Ngo observed that Gisborne Hospital had \u201cmarked inequities\u201d compared with other hospitals around the country.<\/p>\n

\u201cUnlike Waikato and Christchurch, where just above a third of presentations received orthopantomograms [OPG], Gisborne Hospital does not even have an OPG machine required for basic dental diagnoses,\u201d Ngo wrote.<\/p>\n

Gisborne Hospital is one of six across the country without an on-site dental centre.<\/p>\n

The report says the city has five private dental clinics, but the nearest hospital clinic is at Waikato Hospital \u2013 a six-hour drive away.<\/p>\n

\u201cDefinitive care was not available to those admitted to Gisborne Hospital because of the lack of a hospital dental department,\u201d Ngo wrote.<\/p>\n

\u201cIn contrast, all admitted patients with similar presentations in Christchurch and Waikato received definitive treatment under general anaesthesia, such as extraction or incision and drainage.\u201d<\/p>\n

In some cases, wait times for patients would be lengthened due to Gisborne Hospital staff needing to consult with Waikato Hospital for advice.<\/p>\n

The majority of presentations didn\u2019t require hospital admission and serious cases were transferred to Waikato Hospital.<\/p>\n

These presentations were \u201ctime-consuming, costly and suboptimally managed in EDs [emergency departments] because of lack of dental specific facilities and expertise\u201d, Ngo wrote.<\/p>\n

Over the last few years, local healthcare providers have taken the demand for dental care into their own hands.<\/p>\n

In 2025, Turanga Health more than tripled the reach of its free mobile dental clinic initiative<\/a> from 2024.<\/p>\n

Last year, 605 treatments were given to 178 patients across 10 days \u2013 a 346% increase on the previous year\u2019s reach.<\/p>\n

In a statement, Nicola Barrington, Health New Zealand Te Whatu Ora\u2019s group director of operations for Tair\u0101whiti, said there was \u201cno quick or easy solution\u201d to issues in oral healthcare in rural communities.<\/p>\n

\u201cHealth NZ expects all hospitals to provide specialist hospital dental services as capacity allows,\u201d Barrington said.<\/p>\n

\u201cIn Tair\u0101whiti, emergency dental treatment is available, providing care that is immediately necessary for the relief of pain and treatment of infection for low-income adults.<\/p>\n

\u201cServices are delivered either from public hospitals or private dental facilities. Tair\u0101whiti\u2019s hospital dental service continues to respond to the needs of community with a focus on strengthening equity of access for all within the district.\u201d<\/p>\n

A review is underway into oral health service delivery for 0-17-year-olds, \u201cwith a focus on vulnerable communities\u201d.<\/p>\n

But Ngo said support should be targeted at \u201cyounger, working-aged adults and those who lived in areas of higher social deprivation to navigate barriers to dental care access\u201d.<\/p>\n

Ngo called for a national policy for a regional hospital dental department \u2013 specifically, dental-specific diagnostic equipment, a purpose-built clinic and junior and senior dental officers.<\/p>\n

\u201cFindings from this study highlight the need for oral health services that are responsive to a young, predominantly M\u0101ori population, and to communities facing high socio-economic deprivation,\u201d she wrote.<\/p>\n

\u201cPolicymakers need to re-evaluate regional-hospital dental care service frameworks and identify areas of funding to target inequity in meeting hospital dental service specifications.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Ngo observed that Gisborne Hospital had \u201cmarked inequities\u201d compared with other hospitals around the country. \u201cUnlike Waikato and…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":549185,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[34],"tags":[1975,536,27056,535,26034,5910,96416,38114,12506,1360,134,527,2241,11551,1452,27135,9812,111,139,69,1118,91738,6293,7565,1560,1518,12860,1517,48077,1361,61,274],"class_list":["post-549184","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-healthcare","tag-at","tag-care","tag-clinic","tag-dental","tag-department","tag-due","tag-filling","tag-gap","tag-gisborne","tag-having","tag-health","tag-healthcare","tag-hospital","tag-hours","tag-issues","tag-lack","tag-needs","tag-new-zealand","tag-newzealand","tag-nz","tag-of","tag-onsite","tag-patients","tag-receive","tag-report","tag-research","tag-revealed","tag-reveals","tag-specialist","tag-that","tag-to","tag-travel"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/549184","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=549184"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/549184\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/549185"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=549184"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=549184"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=549184"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}