ADAVB 2018/2019 Annual Report

8 | A D A V B A N N U A L R E P O R T 2 0 1 8 / 1 9 Department of Health and Human Services, and a range of public health organisations. We continue to advocate on behalf of members and the community for public policies that promote good oral health and appropriate access to dental care. Thank you to the ADAVB members, staff, committees and stakeholders who provided support and advice, and participated in our work over the past year. Your contributions were essential to achieving the ADAVB’s leadership goals. Strategic priority area: Member services Aim: To provide the highest quality services to benefit members in their day to day lives. Practice Plus is a practice support service that provides information and support to assist members and their staff with practice management issues including accreditation, infection control, setting up a practice, and other safety and quality compliances. The Practice Plus team plans and delivers seminars and workshops, and provides consulting services, as well as over- the-phone advice, website resources and printed publications. Community relations officers (CROs) help ADAVB members address patient concerns, and in their role as professional consultants (PCs), can advise all members on any general professional or clinical matter, as long as the matter would not be considered a notifiable event under an indemnity insurance policy. The delivery of CPD programs remains a core membership service. The CPD team is supported by the CPD Committee, which consists of a mix of general practice and specialist dentists, as well as representatives from the Recent Graduates and Students Committee. The experience, diversity and knowledge of the CPD Committee is drawn upon to design a range courses, conducted by the CPD unit, to support members at all stages of their career. Work area highlights Professional support Practice Plus received more than 1457 enquiries from ADAVB and ADATas members during 2018/19, and addressed 1911 separate issues, a significant increase from 1300 enquiries and 1445 issues in the previous year. The most common topics addressed were infection control, accreditation, systems management and new practice set-up. The CROs/PCs took 3515 calls in 2018/19, an increase from a total of 3226 calls in 2017/18. The main topics were about managing complaints, patient management and Medicare. Of these calls, 2727 were from members and 783 from the public. The CROs received 76 written patient concerns, with the main topics being implants, crowns and endodontic-related matters. The CROs attended recent graduate events, training sessions run by Practice Plus and ADAVB group meetings to promote the CRO member service. The patient helpline and the CRO/PC support available for members continued to be promoted as a core member offering through a number of mediums: online, at membership events and through regular editorials in the Victorian Dentist .