Lack of willing dentist stalling dental van plan in Torres Strait BACK SEAT: The $780,000 dental sits idle on Thursday Island. THIS is a $780,000 dental van that is going nowhere. Due to be officially launched in December last year, the ten-tonne white van sits idle in a backyard on Thursday Island as Queensland Health officials try to recruit a dentist and driver to work in the Torres Strait. The nine metre truck has become the latest victim of a health funding stoush between the federal and state governments and is unlikely to be operational for another two months. Queensland Health Minister Lawrence Springborg, who touted the Dental Drover "as critical to closing the health gap in indigenous communities" last year, said the truck had to "take a back seat" because of a lack of staff and funding pressures. Mr Springborg said the Dental Drover was another case of the Federal Government paying a one-off cost without any ongoing funding to cover day-to-day operational costs. He said one dentist was doing the work of three in the remote Torres Strait and Northern Peninsula Health district, with a hiring process ongoing for the two vacant positions. "They can't just conjure a dentist out of thin air," Mr Springborg said. Obviously they've got other priorities and the big new van has had to take a back seat. But Federal Indigenous Health Minister Warren Snowdon said it was "extremely disappointing" the State Government had cancelled the December 6 launch and left remote communities without any oral health program. Mr Snowdon said operational funding for the vehicles including salaries, had been agreed between Federal and State governments at the outset. Australian Dental Association Queensland president Bruce Newman said the botched dental van program was a typical "white elephant." "It is an unfortunate waste of money," Dr Newman said. It is typical of Queensland Health to have something like this sitting idle and unused. He said the Federal Government needed to support a similar program for dentists as they did to get doctors working in remote areas. The van is one of three funded under the National Partnership Agreement on Health Infrastructure to support oral health services in the Torres Strait, Cape York and Cherbourg. It has been purpose-built with an airbag suspension system to drive on to landing barges to be ferried between outer islands. Queensland Health has denied claims the vehicle was too big to fit on to landing craft.