Wairarapa District Health Board is to receive two of 94 mobile dental units to be built and distributed across the country over the next three years.
Phil Cammish, who has been lead CEO for the collective procurement project, said with resources so scarce it was important to use the units well.
"Dental
therapists will be able to move from location to location knowing the equipment they're using is the same wherever they work. That type of standardisation ultimately means greater safety for people receiving dental treatment," he said.
Wairarapa DHB is not expecting the units to arrive before mid 2010 and was the first DHB in the country to have their business case accepted for a redevelopment of their oral health services, following a national survey of dental facilities that showed many were unable to meet modern building standards.
Motorhome manufacturer Ci Munro's specialist transport engineering arm, Action Motor Bodies (AMB), has secured the three year contract to complete the mobile units as part of the District Health Board's Child and Adolescent Oral Health project.
The new mobile units will replace traditional stationary clinics at schools throughout New Zealand in an initiative designed to cut costs and allow DHBs to service more schools in more areas increasing the number of students who receive dental care.
All 94 vans are being built to surgical standards compliant with criteria for patient areas of hospitals, both medical and dental.
"One of the most intriguing parts of the build was keeping the children in mind at every stage of the process, the units are customised for their comfort. To keep things cool or hot inside there's an inverter heat pump mounted under the body just behind the access steps, and the steps themselves have been designed along with a removable guardrail so they are suitable for small children access," AMB business unit manager Chris Devoy said.
