"No dental service in Fitzroy Crossing"

Dear yankeeqj85,

I sympathise with your frustration and the inconvenience of having to travel from Fitzroy Crossing to Broome to see the dentist.

Until recently, Fitzroy Crossing enjoyed the benefit of having the same public dentist and dental assistant consistently for 12 years and we have been diligently trying to fill the positions since their departure. Unfortunately, the public health system is experiencing significant challenges in general to recruit dentists in Western Australia and Fitzroy Crossing is one of the areas being impacted.

Dental Health Services (DHS) in WA has been using all available media and resources to attract new clinical dental staff including advertising in overseas media. We have had very limited success so far, but we are continuing to try as we really appreciate the needs of yourself and other people living in remote locations. We will continue to actively recruit to the vacant dentist and dental assistant positions for the Fitzroy Crossing Dental Clinic and we are also looking into the availability of Perth-based DHS and agency staff willing to deploy to Fitzroy Crossing to increase service provision.

If you have any other questions, please feel free to contact Dr Aleks Clarke, Regional Dental Officer – North on 08 9313 0555.

Kind regards

Dr Mark McAndrew