ADAVB 2018/2019 Annual Report

A D A V B A N N U A L R E P O R T 2 0 1 8 / 1 9 | 2 5 The Grampians Region Oral Health Network The purpose of my role as Grampians Region Oral Health Network (GROHN) ADAVB representative is to support Dental Health Services Victoria in the delivery of its oral health activities in the Grampians region. At each of the GROHN quarterly meetings I attended on behalf of the ADAVB, the common theme was a chronic shortage of dentists in many of the public clinics in this quite far flung and remote area. Where a dentist is recruited, it is rare for them to stay for any length of time. Recruits are usually new or recent graduates who may have never left the urban life and their cultural/ emotional supports. Rural and remote public dentistry is as challenging as dentistry gets and having no mentor or colleague, and limited specialist referral pathways, makes this a challenging situation for these graduates. At one of the clinics, these inexperienced dentists are expected to treat some of the state’s scariest, unaccompanied criminals on day release. The employment situation in rural and remote NSW is markedly better. The most obvious differentiating factor is a significantly higher rate of remuneration presumably providing the opportunity to employ dentists with some experience. It appears the aim of opening a rural dental school to attract rural students to train as dentists has not yet resulted in an increase in recruitment and retention of dentists in the public sector in rural Victoria. Though the nine public dental agencies represented at the GROHN meetings have difficulty recruiting dentists, they have a lot of success recruiting and retaining dental therapists, hygienists and oral health therapists. This then leads to the perception that extending the role of oral health therapists is the solution to service delivery, if dentists are not willing to work in these locations. Actions taken by the ADAVB to improve the remuneration for public sector dentists are vitally important to improving this situation. The group is concerned about the ability to effectively recruit staff for the proposed new school dental van program in rural areas. The members of the network expressed that they find it helpful to have an experienced rural dentist representing the ADAVB and contributing to these meetings. Dr Simon Sheed ADAVB Representative