Winners of the DHSV Public Oral Healthcare Awards announced

Dental Health Services Victoria (DHSV) last night announced and paid tribute to the winners of DHSV’s Public Oral Healthcare Awards.

The awards recognise professionals working in the public dental sector for their outstanding contribution to the oral health and general wellbeing of members of the community.

The winners of the Public Oral Healthcare Awards for 2013 are:

Innovative model of care
Health Promoting Practice Model
North Richmond Community Health Centre

Excellence in service delivery
Peninsula Health Community Dental Program
Peninsula Health Dental Team

Leader in oral health
Dr Michael Smith
Director of Dentistry, Barwon Health

The winners were recognised at the award ceremony as part of the DHSV AGM, and received funding of $5,000 to attend a health conference of their choice to continue their professional development.

(Photo of North Richmond Community Health Centre representatives kindly supplied by DHSV)

ADAVB extends congratulations to all winners and finalists in these awards, which reflect the dedication and commitment of public oral health personnel.

Good news - Consumer confidence growing

Consumer confidence is growing, according to two recent reports.

The Westpac Melbourne Institute Index of Consumer Sentiment increased by 1.9% in November. The Index increased from 108.3 in October to 110.3 in November. These are the highest levels since the July-December period in 2010 when the Index averaged 114.

Another measure of consumer spirits lifting is the latest Commonwealth Bank Business Sales Indicator. For the 14th consecutive month economy-wide spending rose 0.4% in October, following an identical rise in the previous month. The October results show that the pace of spending growth has stablised over the last few months, after slowing between March and August.

Practices concerned about whether they can afford to employ new graduates can take these more optimistic analyses into account when planning workforce changes over the coming weeks.

Dentistry stops to honour Dr Nathan Cochrane

The life of Dr Nathan Cochrane, one of the 'favourite sons' of the dental community, was celebrated at St Mark’s church, Camberwell on 20 November.

Close friend and colleague, Dr Sath Saranathan*, told the congregation that dentistry had practically ceased because staff and students of the Melbourne Dental School, staff from Dental Health Services Victoria, dental practitioners from throughout Victoria and representatives of the Australian Dental Association Victorian Branch had come to celebrate his life.  Dr Saranathan said that as Dr Cochrane was passionate about oral health, he "would not be happy about this".

Dr Cochrane, aged 34, died suddenly on 9 November.

Internationally recognised for his research work on a variety of dental matters, his professional life was strung with awards and honours.  His energy, enthusiasm and academic acumen will be missed by all who benefitted from his intelligence, leadership and good nature.

Dr Cochrane is survived by his wife Lisa, and two young sons, James and Elliott.

A more formal tribute to Dr Cochrane's contribution to his profession and the community will appear in the February ADAVB Newsletter.

*Apology: An earlier version of this post mistakenly attributed these remarks to Dr Matthew Hopcraft. ADAVB apologises for this error.

Leaders of the future graduate

This year’s Health Sector Leadership Program has concluded with 23 participants graduating at a formal function in the Old Treasury building.

Coming from six health associations including ADAVB, the participants attended four interactive workshops and had a mentor each throughout the program. The other associations taking part were the Australian Physiotherapy Association, Optometrists Association Australia, Pharmaceutical Society of Australian Victorian Branch, Dietitians Association of Australia, and Speech Pathology Australia.

ADAVB’s participants were: Drs Aditi Bhide, Nadia Dobromilsky, Alison Sahhar and Jonathan Teoh. (Pictured from left are Dr Bhide, Dr Teoh, ADAVB President Dr Jo-Anne Cherry and Dr Sahhar - Dr Dobromilsky was unable to attend the function.)

The State Government’s Chief Allied Health Advisor, Ms Kathleen Philip, who was impressed by the program, spoke to graduates and guests about shaping new leadership roles, and highlighted her own experiences in taking on her position.

The program, which is an initiative of ADAVB, aims to support the development of future leaders in the health sector, and is wholly supported by Guild Insurance Ltd. It was presented by Leadership Victoria, who are highly respected for the quality of their developmental programs.

Cap on self-education expenses axed

The proposed $2000 cap on the amount people can deduct as self-education expenses has been ditched by the Federal Coalition Government.

The Treasurer, Mr Hockey, made the announcement when detailing a package of taxation measures which he claims “will provide certainty to business and significantly reduce red tape and associated costs”.

Dealing with a backlog of 92 announced but unlegislated tax and superannuation measures, Mr Hockey said that the Government would proceed with 19 initiatives with a further three being significantly amended.

The Government will not proceed with the self-education expenses cap of $2000, meaning that expenses will continue to be deductible according to normal rules. (ADA, and many other associations, had actively campaigned against the cap.)

Nor will the Government proceed with Labor’s announcement which would have taxed people’s superannuation pension earnings above $100,000 in the draw-down phase.

Inquiry into online health care system

Health Minister Peter Dutton has announced an inquiry into the personally controlled e-Health record system – an online summary allowing healthcare providers and hospitals to view and share a person’s health information.

Mr Dutton has the criticised the performance of the Personally Controlled Electronic Health Record program, established by the previous Government.  He claims that only a fraction of people have established a record, and for those who have, only a few hundred doctors have added a Shared Health Summary.

The review panel will be chaired by Mr Richard Royle, Executive Director of the UnitingCare Health group in Queensland. The other members are Dr Steve Hambleton, President of the Australian Medical Association, and Mr Andrew Walduck, Chief Information Officer of Australia Post.

After taking public submissions, the panel will report to the Minister by mid-December.

 

Health tourism checklist

With a private health insurer planning to sell offshore dental and medical packages to Australians who are looking for cheaper prices for treatment, or wanting to obtain a "free holiday" with their offshore medical visit, the Australian Dental Association has produced a consumer check-list.  ADA members are encouraged to download these for patient reference within their practices.

ADA says that Australian dentists and medical practitioners provide a level of quality of service not matched in many parts of the world. They do this in a tight regulatory environment which covers the practitioners, the surgery, the methodology of treatment delivered and the environment in which it is delivered, such as infection control, and the use of quality assured equipment.

The Association warns: "Complex or detailed procedures carry a risk. Having the work done overseas by practitioners that you are not familiar with, in an environment where you do not know the quality of education and training of the practitioner, the regulatory measures in place to guarantee safety and quality of treatment, nor the quality of equipment or products to be used on your treatment, only escalates that risk. Many of the materials used (e.g. implant components) are not available in Australia as they have not passed through the Therapeutic Goods Authority's regulations and so cannot be repaired here.

"If problems arise there may be no guarantee that the provider will remedy the situation. Would you wish to return to that practitioner anyway?"

The Australian Medical Association has issued a similar warning.

AHPRA / DBA 2013 annual report released

The 2012/13 annual report of the Australian Health Practitioner Regulation Agency and the National Boards has been published.

For the dental profession, the report reveals that:
• 19,912 dental practitioners were registered at the end of June 2013, an increase of 8.7% since national registration data was first published in June 2011
• 1052 notifications (concerns/complaints) were received about dental practitioners and of these 586 were lodged outside of NSW (which has a co-regulatory system)
• 1075 notifications were closed nationally by 30 June 2013, 522 of these were managed outside of NSW
• of the 522 cases closed under the National Scheme, practitioners were fined in two cases.

Of the remainder, the Dental Board of Australia determined to:

• take no further action or that the case was to be handled by the relevant health complaints entity who initially received the notification, or referred to another body for action in 422 cases 
• caution or reprimand the practitioner in 64 cases, and 
• impose conditions on a dental practitioner’s registration or accept an undertaking in 34 cases 

The report also notes that:
• the Board established an Oral Surgery Panel to provide advice to the Board on the specialty of oral surgery; and,
• Guidelines on supervision for dental practitioners were finalised and published after consultation.