ADAVB submission on Metro Health Plan

ADAVB has lodged a submission on the Victorian Government's Metropolitan Health Plan. The submission welcomes the plan’s acknowledgement of oral health services within its framework, and in particular the priority it attaches to the care of older people and oral health.

The detailed submission makes a number of recommendations including:
• Public dental care – waiting times to be reduced from an average 23 months to 12 months
• A fee-for-service voucher system – based on the DVA schedule (indexed) - for public health patients
• The Victorian Government to ask the Commonwealth Government to include dental services in Medicare Locals
• The State Government to request the Commonwealth Government to fund the mapping of the ADA Schedule and Glossary of Dental Services against the SNOMED CT (systematic nomenclature of medical clinical terminology) database
• Aged care
o Portable dental units to be provided for dental teams visiting aged care homes
o Mandatory and uniform oral health assessments by dentists or other registered oral health professionals
o The inclusion of a room for dental, podiatry and other health services in plans for new aged care residences
o Provide affordable transport for ambulatory residents
o Dental chairs being replaced in public clinics be renovated and installed in aged care facilities
o A 25% loading on DVA fees for treating eligible older people in nursing homes
o Basic oral health and hygiene training for nurses and carers and funding for educating and training of dental teams who visit residential care facilities.

Special thanks to members of ADAVB Council, and the Public Dentistry and Third Party Committees for their input to this substantial submission.