Dentists should not be concerned: Health Dept

Press, 3 December 1987, Page 42

Dentists should not be concerned: Health Dept

PA Wellington Dentists should not be concerned that unskilled people would try to offer dental services after proposed changes to legislation, the Health Department says. The department’s health programme manager, Mr Russell Ritchie, said he was “quite sure” the Government had no intention of removing what was the intention of the legislation • the protection of the public. "The Minister (Mr Caygill) has signalled there are people with very specific training and qualifications who can justifiably claim to be experts,” he said. “But it possibly gives people a choice to go to alternative providers (of dental care).”

Mr Ritchie said the changes would bring the regulations under which dentists could practice into line with those under which people could offer different kinds of medical treatment. One result could be the extension of the school dental service to secondary school students, which Mr Caygill had said he was keen on earlier this year. It might also see people who were not registered dentists, but who had training and skills in the field, offering dental services.

“At the moment there are very considerable limitations in dental registration,” Mr Ritchie said.

A spokeswoman from Mr Caygill’s office said

the move was intended to provide a wider range of cheaper services to consumers.

The legislation also aimed to involve lay people in the disciplinary procedures for dentists to

provide greater public accountability, she said. Taranaki branch president of the Dental Association, Mr Rob Bristow, said the proposed changes could spark de regulation of other medical and health services. “Association members are deeply concerned about the changes afoot,” he said.

They could be the first step towards deregulation of physiotherapy and other health and medical services.

The association prided itself on its quality control

and standards members were expected to maintain.

“Those on the fringes of dentistry are not so tightly controlled,” he added. Dental technicians and hygienists were not qualified to do a number of dentistry tasks, but the public had generally accepted that technicians were a cheaper alternative for getting some dentistry work done. Hygienists had, until now, only been allowed to operate alongside qualified dentists.

If the changes were approved, both groups would be able to function in their own right, Mr Bristow said.

“The. public should be aware this could lead to some people being treated by unqualified staff.”