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Patients can sometimes have unrealistic expectations of what dental treatment can deliver and may have an incorrect understanding of the facts leading them to file a complaint. Occasionally though the angst is understandable, particularly where a significant amount of money has changed hands for an inferior or unsatisfactory service or product.
We all work in a very challenging commercial environment with patients who are prepared to spend but are also prepared to shop around. The more we provide discounts to accommodate these patients, the more pressure we put ourselves under to deliver quality in the time available. I have been serving members in South Africa for 15 years now and if I could ask you all to do one thing before I finish my career it would be not to discount your treatment. Stick to the principle that you are worth what you charge. To date, I have not heard a patient say, when making a complaint, that they really valued and appreciated the discounted treatment. In my experience, it never happens. Just the same as I have yet to see the HPCSA criticise a patient for making a complaint even when there is no finding of unprofessional conduct.
Later this summer/winter depending on your relationship with the equator, Dr Yash Naidoo and I will be at the SADA Congress in Durban. There are a few things you might have missed that you need to know about in 2025, and we will both be doing a session together which will include some advice about HPCSA practice investigations and an introduction to the ethics of AI in clinical practice. I have also been asked by KC Makhubele to talk about some of the challenges that the government and the profession in the UK faced when funding and delivering NHS dentistry, particularly on the reform of NHS dentistry over the last 50 years. The plan is to draw attention to how different payment and remuneration systems led to selective withdrawal from the provision of some expensive overhead treatments and altered clinical decision making. Like it or not but a dentist’s perception of patient need can be exquisitely sensitive to the way they are paid.
Finally, in October our annual Ethics for All event will be dedicated to AI in clinical practice. We have some excellent local speakers and some extensive research from the MPS Foundation to back our policy views. I look forward to seeing as many of you as possible over the next few months both face to face and online.
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