Teen Dental Program Rules released

The Dental Benefit Rules 2008 set out detailed requirements relating to a number of provisions under the Dental Benefits Act 2008, specifically in relation to the Government's Medicare Teen Dental Plan. An Explanatory Statement has also been issued to accompany the Rules.

The Rules include the definition of the Medicare Dental Benefits Schedule Item 88000, worth $150, which is described as follows

"Preventative dental check, provided to an eligible dental patient by, or on behalf of, a dental provider, consisting of an oral examination and, if clinically necessary, any of the following services:
(a) radiological examination and interpretation;
(b) removal of plaque or stain;
(c) removal of calculus;
(d) topical application of re-mineralising agent;
(e) dietary advice;
(f) oral hygiene instruction;
(g) fissure sealing;

Limit of 1 preventative dental check for an eligible dental patient each calendar year."

Dentistry 08. BOOK NOW. Early Bird Rate Closes 30th June!

If you haven't signed up yet, early bird registration for Dentistry 08 closes on 30th June 2008. Book now and enjoy significant savings for you and your team. Don't miss the Convention dinner where you can mingle and catch up with friends and colleagues. Full details and online registration is available at http://www.adavb.net/or call ADAVB (03) 8825 4600 to obtain a registration brochure.

More dentists per capita since 1986

The per capita rate of dentists and doctors working in Australia has increased over the last 20 years while the rate of nurses has recovered from a decline, according to a new analysis of Census data from the Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS).

The ABS found that between 1986 and 2006, the number of general practitioners per 100,000 people increased from 152.6 to 178.6, the rate of specialists nearly doubled - from 57.7 to 92 - and dentist numbers went from 40.5 to 45.7 per 100,000 people.

The number of nurses per 100,000 people fell between 1986 and 1996 (from 1,113.7 to 1,048.7), but came back to 1,106.9 in 2006.

Selected Health Occupations: Australia, 2006 can be viewed at: http://www.abs.gov.au/AUSSTATS/abs@.nsf/mf/4819.0?OpenDocument

According to the Australian Council of Social Services in their 2007 report on behalf of Australia Fair, A Fair Go for all Australians, "Australia has the 19th lowest supply of dentists per person as well as shortages in rural areas" (p.26).

The recent estalishment of a number of new dental schools around the couuntry, and significant increases in student intakes at established schools, seem to have addressed the shortage issue. Consequently, the focus now needs to turn to the maldistribution of the workforce - especially in the public sector and rural aeas.

New Council and Executive take office

At a specially convened meeting of the newly elected Branch Council last night, the new Executive Committee members were appointed as follows:

Dr Stephen Cottrell - President (pictured)
Dr Anne Harrison - Vice President
Dr Chris Callahan - Honorary Secretary
Dr Anne Stewart - Executive Councillor
Dr Mark Bowman - Immediate Past President (also apppointed as a Federal ADA Councillor)

Other members of the new Branch Council include:

Dr Andrew Barnes

Dr Bob Cvetkovic

Dr David Curnow

Dr Robert De Poi

Dr Neil Hewson (Federal ADA Councillor)

Dr Matthew Hopcraft

Dr John Matthews (Federal ADA Councillor)

Dr Greg Morris

Dr Ming Ann Ong

Dr Vinitha Soosaipillai

Dr Jonathan Tversky (also appointed Chair of the Finance and Audit Committee)

Dr Gary Yip

Dr Bruce Drysdale, Dr Greg Tilley and Dr Ann Goodrich were reappointed to the Benevolent Fund Board of Management.

All of these new appointments took effect at the end of the June General Meeting, which was also held last night.

UK Government consultation re tobacco control

The ADAVB has long been an active partner with the Victorian QUIT campaign in promoting smoking cessation in the interests of improved oral and general health. In that context, similar efforts undertaken in other jurisdictions are always of interest.

The Cancer Reform Strategy 2007 announced the UK Government’s intention to consult on the next steps in tobacco control and the further regulation of tobacco products, and to consult with stakeholders on measures to reduce the significant harm to health caused by smoking for those who are addicted to nicotine and not able to quit altogether.

They describe their new consultation paper as the first step in developing a new national tobacco control strategy. It covers four main areas:

• Reducing smoking rates and health inequalities caused by smoking: including trends in smoking prevalence, regional patterns and health inequalities and tackling the supply of cheap illegal tobacco in our communities.
• Protecting children and young people from smoking: reducing young people’s access to tobacco, reducing exposure to tobacco promotion, and protecting children from secondhand smoke to prevent future generations suffering poor health caused by tobacco.
• Supporting smokers to quit: including NHS stop smoking support, increasing access to, and take-up of, quit services among high smoking prevalence groups, supporting young smokers to quit, supporting pregnant smokers to quit, and how best practice can be best shared.
• Helping those who cannot quit: considering the potential of a harm reduction approach in tobacco control to help people whose addiction to nicotine makes it extremely difficult to quit altogether.

Draft Voluntary Information Security Breach Notification Guide

The Office of the Privacy Commissioner has released a consultation paper seeking views on a draft voluntary information security breach notification guide.The Privacy Act 1988 (Cth) does not specifically require an agency or organisation to notify individuals or the Privacy Commissioner of a breach of information security. However the issue of an amendment to the Privacy Act to require mandatory data breach notification is under consideration as part of the Australian Law Reform Commission’s review of privacy. The Office has developed a voluntary guide to assist agencies and organisations to respond to information security breaches and take steps to prevent such incidents from occurring. The move follows several major high-profile data breaches occurring in the United Kingdom and the United States which have collectively resulted in the loss of millions of people’s personal information.
Comments are invited by 16 June and may be emailed to consultation@privacy.gov.au.

Comments invited on review of Community Health Centre Governance

Victorian Health Minister, Daniel Andrews issued a media release today, inviting responses to a discussion paper looking at options for the governance and accountability of stand alone community health centres in Victoria.

Many of these agencies offer dental services to public patients, and as ADAVB members employed by those centres well know, the remuneration the agencies are able to offer could be significantly reduced by a recent ruling by the Australian Tax Office (ATO). The ruling has the potential to cause the loss of people who deliver services for which there are still long waiting lists, and so further disadvantage the community.

The review was necessitated by the ATO advice that a precedent established by the Federal Court, as applied to the stand alone agencies, meant that they were too tightly regulated to be regarded as public benevolent institutions.

As a result, they would lose Fringe Benefits Tax and other charitable concessions.

Victoria has 100 community health centres operating from 400 sites. Around 60 per cent of them operate in association with, or as part of, hospitals and health services.

The 38 stand alone services which are incorporated under the Associations Incorporation Act are the agencies affected by the discussion paper.

“Our priority is to ensure that the delivery of important services can be maintained, which is why we commenced this review with the intention to make future arrangements consistent with the requirements of the ATO, through legislative change if required,” Mr Andrews said.

“Victoria’s stand alone community health centres received more than $250 million in Victorian Government funding in 2007/08, and we need to be able to ensure this money is spent efficiently and on the health and wellbeing of our community.”

The options outlined in the discussion paper enable agencies to:
· Become a non-government agency which can opt-in to become a registered community health centre;
· Become a charitable non-government organisation not registered under the Health Services Act, and therefore not eligible to receive primary and dental services funding; and
· Amalgamate with a public hospital or health service.

Mr Andrews said comments on the discussion paper must be received by June 20.