October Newsletter delay

ADAVB apologies to members for any inconvenience caused by the delay of the October Newsletter due to problems caused by service providers.
To allow members adequate time to file their answers for the October Clinical Update, the deadline has been extended to Friday, 10 November. However members are strongly urged to have their answers submitted by Friday, 3 November, so that the appropriate hour can be included in the annual ADAVB CPD statement which will be sent to members in mid-November.

Revised Dental Records Code released

Following a consultation and review process, the Dental Practice Board of Victoria has released its updated Code of Practice on Dental Records.

This Code is also accompanied by an Information Paper.

ADAVB supports new Healthy Canteen Kit

Government school canteens are being given until the end of 2008 to phase out sale of confectionary.

This new measure joins the previously announced phasing out of the sale of high sugar content soft drinks. That measure is also being extended to include energy or sports drinks and some flavoured mineral waters with high sugar content.

Education Minister Lynne Kosky launched the new Healthy Canteen Kit at Strathmore Secondary College today, supported by Dr Rob Moodie, CEO of VicHealth. Dr Moodie emphasised that the kit is not about the "food police" telling people what they can and can't do, as much as it is about re-establishing healthy norms, and ensuring that children make informed dietary choices.

The Branch issued a supportive media release, and I participated in short media interviews at the launch, along with the AMA (Victoria) and Diabetes Australia (Victoria).

AMA Private Practice Expo - 21 October

Members or their staff interested in practice management might find the AMA's Private Practice Expo worth a visit on Saturday 21 October.

For registration and other details, click here.

HBA pulls offending ad

A senior manager at HBA contacted the ADAVB this morning to advise that they have taken their radio advertisement off the air following concerns expressed by the profession.

Members need not send further messages to HBA, or BUPA their parent company, for now. Special thanks to all those members who added their personal complaints to those lodged by the Branch. The collective impact was clearly very effective in conveying the strength of feeling about the advertisement.

HBA still intends to promote their new product offering, and is working with their agency to see if they can use a more positive message about dentistry in the next version.

In the meantime, a meeting is proposed between ADAVB and HBA representatives with a view to improving the relationship between the fund and the profession.

We will report further developments in this area as they occur.

Melbourne Uni pushes forward with graduate entry

A report in The Age this morning, "University lobbies on full fees" notes that The University of Melbourne Council is set to approve graduate entry arrangements at its meeting tonight.

Apparently, the paper being considered at this meeting notes that "it is critical to persuade the Government to lift the limit on the number of Australian students that can pay full fees - currently capped at 35% - for the 'Melbourne Model' to succeed."

The plan is to reduce the number of undergraduate degrees offered from 96 to six, one of which is a Bioscience degree.

While The Age article does not mention dentistry, the University's website does. This is surprising as the ADAVB was advised that the model would not be applied to the dental degree without further consultation. The University makes it clear that the Bioscience degree will lead to graduate school opportunities in "a variety of professional areas such as ... Dentistry". The following extract refers:

Professional career pathways
Graduates of the Bachelor of Bioscience will have a wide variety of career pathways available to them. They may consider a career in a health-related profession such as medicine, dentistry, physiotherapy, nursing, behavioural science, optometry, biomedical engineering or population health. They may also consider continuing specialist research as a professional scientist in one of the bioscience fields of study described above. Further opportunities for graduates would exist for professional degrees in complementary disciplines such as veterinary science.

Graduate School opportunities
Graduates of the Bachelor of Bioscience will have the opportunity to apply for further study in a variety of professional areas such as Law and health-related degrees including Medicine, Dentistry, Physiotherapy, Nursing, Optometry, Behavioural Science, Veterinary Science, Population Health and Biomedical Engineering. Graduates will also be well qualified to commence specialist research qualifications (Masters and PhD) in Bioscience.

A two-page pamphlet about this degree is also available.

In another section of the University website, in a section titled Continuing degrees from 2008, the BDSc and BOH degrees appear to remain undergraduate courses.

The ADAVB will seek clarification of the implications of these developments for the future of dental training in Victoria and advise further.

HBA attacks oral health

Many ADA members and a number of members of the public have contacted the Branch to express their concern at an HBA radio advertisement currently on air.

The advertisement features a boy saying that he hates 'going to the dentist because it hurts. It hurts a lot.' It also implies that dental fees are painful for parents rather than a reasonable fee for professional health services, and so undermines the relationship between dental care providers and the wider community.

Parents have contacted the ADAVB to advise that their young children who previously were happy to go to the dentist are now refusing to attend.

The Branch has written to HBA's parent company BUPA, to urge them to withdraw the advertisement, and will be publishing advice via an ADAVB Alert! and at the Branch website on means by which complaints can be drawn to the attention of HBA.

How such negative advertising is supposed to help HBA preferred provider practices to present a positive image to their young patients is not at all clear.

DHS Annual Report 2005/06

The Department of Human Services Annual Report for 2005/06 contains the following summary comments about dental services:

"Increases in funding for dental health care services have resulted in improved access to services. From June 2005 to June 2006 waiting times for dentures decreased by 20 per cent from 28 to 22.4 months and for general care the waiting time fell by 16 per cent from 28 to 23.5 months. 53,000 or 12.5 per cent more visits were made to community dental clinics in 2005–06 compared to 2004–05, and emergency assessments were seen within 24 hours.

Support for the education of dental professionals was extended in 2005–06 by providing undergraduate students with better exposure to public dentistry, expanding rural scholarships and supporting the establishment of the Bachelor of Oral Health Science at La Trobe, Bendigo, including the provision of 10 bonded scholarships."

Happy Anniversary ADAVB Blog

The ADAVB's Blog has celebrated its first anniversary.

The first entry in the ADAVB Blog was dated 30 September 2005, and it highlighted the Productivity Commission's position paper on Australia's Health Workforce. In the year since the Blog commenced, we have ranged over a very diverse collection of stories and news items - many of which could not find space in the Branch's official Newsletter.

We trust members have found the Blog a useful adjunct to their other information and resource channels, and welcome any feedback members would like to share about desired enhancements.

Dental Waiting lists in the news

Visit the Victorian Oral Health Alliance Blog to read significant updates on public dental waiting lists, and to read about the Sunday Age editorial calling on the Federal Government to do more to address the dental crisis.

Health Expenditure Australia 2004/05

Key dental extracts from the new Australian Institute of Health and Welfare publication Health Expenditure Australia 2004/05 include:

"Private health insurance funding of $5.7 billion in 2004–05 was mainly spent on private hospitals (48%), dental services (12%), administration (10%) and medical services (10%)".

"In 2004–05, out–of-pocket recurrent expenditure by individuals on health goods and services was an estimated $16.9 billion: $4.7 billion (28%) was spent on medications; $3.4 billion (20%) on dental services and $3.0 billion (18%) on aids and appliances".

"Most of the increase in recurrent expenditure was in the following six areas:
• hospitals—up $2.3 billion (31.0% of the overall increase in recurrent expenditure)
• medical services—up $1.7 billion (22.8%)
• aids and appliances—up $0.8 billion (10.3%)
• medications—up $0.6 billion (8.0%)
• high-level residential care—up $0.5 billion (6.9%)
• dental services —up $0.5 billion (6.1%)."

"Individuals funded 67.1% of the $5.1 billion spent on dental services in 2004–05. For the period 1994–95 to 2004–05, real growth in dental services expenditure averaged 3.7% per year—1.4 percentage points below the annual real growth in total recurrent health expenditure. However, in nominal terms, average annual growth for dental services expenditure was 8.8% over the decade, 0.5 percentage points higher than the growth for total recurrent health expenditure of 8.3%. The reason for the difference is the high growth in dental prices. In contrast, for the period 1997–98 to 2002–03, real growth for dental services (6.2% annually) exceeded that for recurrent health expenditure by 0.7 percentage points."