The Australian Dental Association has condemned a decision to relocate Adelaide University's schools of medicine and nursing to its new West End campus but leave the school of dentistry in Frome Road premises.

South Australian president Jack Gaffey said it left the future of Adelaide's School of Dentistry in limbo after a move had been promised previously.

Dr Gaffey said the backflip would jeopardise the future of dental education.

"We are very concerned that the effects of isolation of the dental school will impact on the future of dental education and research in South Australia," he said.

Dr Gaffey says when the Royal Adelaide Hospital moves west along North Terrace in 2016, some current services used by dental students will close and the school might not take students in future years.

"It's possible they may not take in any students for a period of years until they work out where they're actually able to be taught because, if the dental school wasn't operating on Frome Road, they would have to make do with other facilities around Adelaide and they certainly wouldn't be able to teach anywhere near the number of students that are there," he said.

Dental funding concerns

Dr Gaffey has met Health Minister Jack Snelling to put his concerns, but says the minister has refused to commit any funds for a new dental school.

He says the Government also has refused to guarantee it will maintain its level of spending on public dentistry once new Commonwealth money starts to flow.

Dr Gaffey says he is worried the State Government plans to use the funding it currently sets aside for public dentistry to shore-up other areas of the health budget.

"It seems probable that any future additional Commonwealth funding for public dentistry will be stripped out by the state," he said.

Adelaide University said it offered to build a new dental hospital as part of the dental school planned for its new clinical building in the West End health precinct, but the SA Government advised it could not fund the plan.

It said SA Health also had advised the university recently that, from 2015, it would progressively cut back the Adelaide dental hospital from 150 dental chairs to about 20 per cent of that total and there was a plan to put the public dental service out to tender.

University Vice-Chancellor Professor Warren Bebbington said it wanted to work with SA Health to find a way to preserve dental training in the future.

"A dental school has to work in conjunction with the dental hospital, the dental students have to have access to patients to practise on," he said.

Sorry, this video has expired Health care decay ( Robyn Powell )

"If we had no access to patients we'd have to close the dental school, so it's quite serious."

Dental student Ben Schapel said the current service was in high demand.

"As students working in the dental hospital we provide a public service for people in Adelaide and there's already a high demand for that," he said.

"We wouldn't be able to see as many patients, we wouldn't be able to have near as many students come through the dental school."

SA Health CEO David Swan gave an assurance on the future of public dental care.

"Whatever model we come up with, access to dental care in the future will be no different to what it has been in the past," he said.

Nursing pay agreement finalised

South Australian public sector nurses and midwives will get a 9 per cent pay rise over three years.

They have voted in favour of a deal struck between the SA Government and the nursing union, with 95 per cent backing the enterprise agreement in a secret ballot.

Nursing and Midwifery Federation secretary Elizabeth Dabars said the deal promised to maintain staff levels and provide a professional development allowance of at least $700 per nurse.

"The ballot result secures a new safe staffing model across both metropolitan and country public hospitals, which will provide the highest level of staffing in Australia," she said.

Mr Snelling said the agreement provided security for nurses and midwives at a time of significant pressure on the health budget.