Minister visits Cobram's new health centre

Victoria's Health Minister, Mr Daniel Andrews, today inspected the construction site of Cobram's medical and dental clinic. "This $3 million development means local families will have first-class health facilities, close to home," he said. The new clinic will bring medical and dental services under one roof by co-locating Cobram District Hospital's existing medical clinic with the Cobram Dental Clinic. The facility - with five dental chairs - will be a training centre for Melbourne University's dental and medical students. Last year the Cobram Dental Clinic treated more than 6000 patients.

State of safety and quality of health care

The Australian Commission on Safety and Quality in Health Care has just released its annual report on the state of health care safety and quality.
Windows into Safety and Quality in Health Care 2009 offers safety and quality insights in a number of settings and from various perspectives.
The report emphasises the three key elements of the Commission’s proposed National Safety and Quality Framework that safe high quality care is always:

• Patient focused
• Driven by information, and
• Organised for safety

Topics covered include clinical deterioration, general practice, hospital mortality rates and antimicrobial stewardship. Other chapters focus on the analysis of patient complaints, sentinel events and other forms of reporting, hospital indicators and the impact of clinical registries.

e-Health on the way

The first step in creating an e-Health system will be taken mid-year when unique healthcare identifiers are assigned to all health consumers as well as to health professionals and the organisations that provide health care in Australia. The system will handle electronic health records, medications-management systems and electronic clinical messaging (discharge, referrals, pathology, and prescriptions) which may be useful when patients are being cared for by multiple providers.
The unique healthcare identifiers will be available on a secure system, operated by Medicare Australia. These identifiers will be provided in addition to Medicare numbers, as a further step to ensure the security of the system.
Health Minister Nicola Roxon made this announcement today after visiting Medicare Australia to see how the system was being developed and meeting with e-Health organisations and professionals.
Some $218 million is funding the National E-Health Transition Authority to 2012.
People can contribute to the debate on the health system via the yourHealth.gov.au website and can comment on the Healthcare Identifiers Bill 2010 using www.health.gov.au/ehealth/consultation. This legislation will be introduced in the first half of this year.

Survey released on dental health of teenagers

The Australian Institute of Health and Welfare has released Dental health of Australia's teenagers and pre-teen children: The Child Dental Health Survey, Australia 2003-04. Teenage children have been identified as being at increased risk of dental disease, and among pre-teen children nearly half of all six-year-olds had a history of decay in their baby teeth. The Child Dental Health Survey provides national information on the dental health of children attending school dental services in Australia, and shows decay experience is relatively common in both teenage and pre-teen Australian children.

Dental Board of Australia seeks approval on standards and registration

The Dental Board of Australia has submitted proposals on mandatory registration standards, endorsements and specialist registration for approval by the Australian Health Workforce Ministerial Council.

The proposals relate to:

• Criminal history registration standard
• English language requirements registration standard
• Professional indemnity insurance arrangements registration standard
• Continuing professional development registration standard
• Recency of practice registration standard
• Board specific registration – scopes of practice
• Specialist registration
• Endorsement of area of practice of conscious sedation.

Common minimum registration standards across all boards are proposed for criminal history matters and English language requirements registration standards.

Government receives tax review report

The Federal Government today received the report of the Henry tax review but will not release it or give its initial response until early next year. Treasurer Wayne Swan says there will be enough time for comment on the report. The report is the result of an 18-month inquiry into Australia's taxation system.

General dental practice arrangements tax fact sheet

The Australian Taxation Office has released a fact sheet that supplements the advice provided in the guidance booklet Your service entity arrangements (NAT13086), particularly in relation to case studies 15 and 16, for general dental practitioners and their advisers. It further illustrates the risk assessment guidelines that the ATO uses when reviewing a general dental practice that has a related party service arrangement in place.

Budget submission lists ways to improve the oral health of Victorians

In its pre-Budget submission to the State Government, ADAVB called for funding to continue to improve the oral health of Victorians.
The Branch says the Government should consider the boosting oral health by:

1. Capital and workforce plans need to be reviewed to build capacity to address the requirements for delivery of universal access to dental care via Denticare, the proposed dental intern program, and expanded clinical placement facilities.

2. Funding of $18m is required to support the establishment of an 80-chair specialist training facility at the Melbourne Dental School.

3. Health care policy planners must recognise that the provision of oral health care is an integral part of the concept of accountability to the community, comprehensive care to patients, and the standard of care for many disease processes and medical diagnoses.

4. A capital plan is required to ensure that all public dental clinics are fitted with ISO 11143 compliant amalgam retention filters to prevent mercury-bearing waste entering the sewerage system.

5. Changing population demographics and disease patterns are increasing the numbers of patients who face barriers to accessing basic oral health care in the traditional dental office setting. Hospital dental programs serve the special needs of these patients, and also provide a safety net for indigent patients. These programs should continue to receive State Government funding. Estimated cost - $200k

6. The critical interface with medicine, so essential to the changing face of dental education and clinical practice, cannot be provided solely within the dental school environment, underscoring the importance of hospital rotations for all undergraduate dental students and the value of hospital-based postgraduate general practice residencies. These educational programs need to receive State funding. Estimated cost - $400k

7. The establishment of hospital-based dental services at public hospitals with more than 200 beds. With the hospitals having the necessary healthcare facilities (from access ramps to staff training), what is required is a dental surgery and equipment, documentation, a dental team and appropriate and adequate funding. Initially establishing a dental unit at St Vincent’s at an estimated cost of $1.5m.

8. Consideration be given to establishing a nursing home program where private practitioners treat residents and are paid by DHSV on a special fee schedule (essentially DVA rates, but with special item codes specific to nursing homes). The service involves setting up portable equipment, writing notes in nursing home records, travel to the residences etc. Estimated initial cost - $0.5m.

9. Funding for several research projects: • Reducing hospital admissions for dental treatment • Interdisciplinary preventive and health promotion activities • Estimated cost - $200k

10. Funding for the teaching of the Diploma and Masters courses on Victim Identification thereby ensuring that Victorian based forensic odontologists are available in the event of emergencies. Estimated cost - $211k.

11. Continue the very successful program of fluoridating Victorian town

Fight against black cola campaign wins health award

The Australian Dental Association Victorian Branch last night congratulated the Obesity Policy Coalition for being the joint winner of a VicHealth Advocacy award for opposing Coca-Cola’s “myth-busting” campaign.
The Council, along with the Parents’ Jury and ADA Inc., last year lodged a complaint with the Australian Competition and Consumers Commission saying that the campaign misled and deceived consumers. The ACCC agreed that the campaign was potentially misleading and asked Coca-Cola to give court-enforceable undertakings to publish corrective advertisements in newspapers across the nation.
ADAVB’s President, Dr Anne Harrison, said the award was deserved because people should not be misled by claims that black cola drinks are healthy.
“There is ample evidence to show that the excessive consumption of acidic soft drinks is a cause of obesity and contributes to the deterioration of oral health,” she said.
The other joint winner was the Alcohol Policy Coalition for a campaign which saw a Jim Beam advertisement withdrawn when the Advertising Standards Council upheld a complaint that the advertisement associated alcohol with dangerous behaviour.

ADAVB submission on e-Health Bill

The ADAVB has made a submission to the Department of Health and Ageing in response to the Exposure Draft of the Healthcare Identifiers Service Bill 2010 (FED), as it affects dental practice and the provision of dental services.
ADAVB is particularly concerned that the role of the professional indemnity (PI) insurer is not recognised. ADAVB says that it is necessary for health practitioners to provide their PI insurer with a copy of the patient record in order to comply with contractual obligations to the insurer and to allow agents of the insurer (e.g. peer advisors and lawyers) to provide advice on claims management.
While the Government’s concern to closely guard the use of healthcare identifiers is understandable given that an Health Identifier (HI) will link to so much information, the Branch suggests that the use of patient health records in the resolution of disputes and complaints has not been adequately considered in the framing of these purposes. ADAVB therefore suggests that the relevant sections of the Bill be amended to accommodate the role of the practitioner’s PI insurer.
ADAVB also contends that the way the Bill is currently - contrary to the e-Health objectives.

New dental school officially opens in Wagga Wagga

The Wagga Wagga campus of Charles Sturt University's Community Dental and Oral Health Clinic was officially opened today. The Commonwealth Government has invested $19.6 million towards the construction and fit-out of the clinical school that includes two dental clinics with 24 chairs, a dental simulation laboratory, specialist dental teaching and research facilities, two IT lecture theatres and accommodation for 40 students.
The funding is part of a broader Government investment of more than $58 million for the university's dental school with sites in Albury, Bathurst, Dubbo, Orange and Wagga Wagga that will support 60 commencing student places each year across the five campuses.
The university says that the five sites will eventually deliver about 30,000 low-fee patient consultations to people in inland NSW and northern Victoria. The first students from the Wagga Wagga Dental Clinic are expected to graduate in 2014.