Draft OHS Codes for public comment

Employer members may be interested to review Draft Compliance Codes issued by Worksafe Victoria late last week.

According to Worksafe, "compliance codes provide practical guidance to people who have duties or obligations under the OHS Act or regulations. Compliance with a compliance code means you are taken to have complied with the relevant provision of the Act or regulations to the extent that duty or obligation is addressed by the code. However compliance may still be achieved in other ways."

While there are nine proposed compliance codes available for public comment, the following topics are the ones most likely to apply to dental practices:
Workplace Amenities and Work Environment
First Aid in the Workplace

Submissions are due by close of business, Thursday 24 April, 2008.

Submissions can be emailed to compliancecodes@worksafe.vic.gov.au, or addressed to:
Public Comment
Manager, Information & Guidance Branch
WorkSafe Victoria
GPO Box 4306
MELBOURNE VIC 3001

Indigenous health equality plan

Indigenous Australians will have access to the same health services as the rest of the population by 2018, under a Federal Government plan.
The Government is also promising to close the 17-year life expectancy gap between Indigenous and non-Indigenous Australians by 2030.
Health Minister Nicola Roxon and indigenous health groups, including the Indigenous Dentists Association of Australia, will sign the pledges today.
Under the plan, power will be handed to community-controlled Aboriginal health providers.

CPD: revised code of practice

The Dental Practice Board of Victoria has revised Code of Practice C005[2008] Continuing Professional Development and the accompanying Information Sheet I003[2008]. They are now available to download http://www.dentprac.vic.gov.au/. The code, which will be in operation until 2011, remains fundamentally unchanged in its key elements, which include:

• 40 hours of CPD for dentists, 30 hours for others to be completed each two year cycle
• a minimum of 2 hours of CPR and 3 of infection control to be completed each cycle ( Note, the code now specifies that a maximum of 4 CPR hours may be claimed in a cycle
• 80% of the total hours to be spent on scientific/clinically based activities (Note the term “scientific” has been replaced with “clinical and/or scientific” in an effort to clarify the types of activities included in this category)
• activities must be of an approved type
• practitioners maintain their own records and must produce them when asked to by the Board.

New privacy guidance to assist private health service providers

Australian Privacy Commissioner Karen Curtis today issued new privacy guidance materials for dentists, medical practitioners and other health service providers and the public.
Released on the Office’s website, the guidance materials consist of five information sheets for healthcare in the Australian private sector, and seven frequently asked questions (FAQs) for the public.
The information sheets address:

• Fees that can be charged for patients to access their records.
• Use and disclosure of health information for managing a health service.
• Sharing health information within a treating team.
• Sharing health information with relatives of an incapacitated patient.
• Denial of access to health information due to a serious threat to life or health.

The FAQs answer questions relate to: patients accessing their medical records, who health service providers can disclose patient information to, and whether health service providers need to obtain the patient's consent.
The information sheets are available @ http://www.privacy.gov.au/publications/index.html#I
The Health FAQs are available @ http://www.privacy.gov.au/faqs/hf/index.html

The Leading Practice Information Night

The School of Dental Science and the ADAVB have been working with the Melbourne Business School to produce The Leading Practice - a business education program that has been specifically tailored for the dental profession. In working with the MBS, we have tapped into a wealth of business knowledge that our members are not able to readily gain access to. You will master fundamental business principles - how to strategise, market, finance, and exert leadership - in your practice. At the same time, you will gain honest insights from people grappeling with the same challenges and learn from their experiences.

We are holding an information night for those interested in The Leading Practice.

Date: Tuesday, 18 March 2008
Time: 6.30pm
Venue: Melbourne Business School, 200 Leicester St, Carlton

If you are interested in finding out more about this program or meeting some of the MBS team, please come and join us. To assist with catering purposes, please RSVP by 14 March to cathy.hosking@adavb.org

EPC scheme to be replaced by new CDHP

The Minister for Health and Ageing, Nicola Roxon, today announced that the Enhanced Primary Care (EPC) Medicare Scheme for people with chronic diseases and conditions would cease to take new patients from 30 March, and in its place a new Commonwealth Dental Health Program (CDHP) would be introduced from 1 July 2008.

The discontinuation of the EPC scheme allows funding to be redirected to the new CDHP.

According to the Minister's release, "the new CDHP will provide up to one million additional dental consultations and treatments."

From 1 July 2008, the new CDHP will provide $290 million over three years to the States and Territories to help fund treatment for around 650,000 people on public dental waiting lists around the country. In addition, a new Teen Dental Plan, will also provide $150 per person towards an annual preventative check for around 1.1 million teenagers aged 12 to 17 years in families receiving Family Tax Benefit A, and teenagers in the same age group receiving Youth Allowance or Abstudy.

EPC patients who have already commenced treatment will be able to continue to receive benefits for dental services provided up to and including 30 June 2008.

Further information on both the wind up of the EPC scheme and the introduction of the new CDHP is expected to be issued over coming weeks.

Comment: ADAVB welcomes the injection of Commonwealth funds into public dental care, as this has been a long neglected priority. It is important to note however, that there are over 6.5 million Australians eligible for publicly funded dental care, and that less than $100m per annum of additional funding plus the funding of a dental checkup for some teenagers will not provide a complete solution to the dental waiting list problem.