Following closely in the wake of the ADA's advocacy win on CDBS, which saw the cap restored to $1000, the Association has now succeeded in widening the scope of the newly-announced National Rural Health Commissioner to include both dental health and dental workforce.

Established as part of Government reforms to regional and rural health in Australia, this newly-created position is intended to act as an independent, high-profile advocate for health issues in remote, rural and regional areas.

When it emerged that the National Rural Health Commissioner's position would cover nursing, indigenous health, mental health, midwifery and allied health need, but not dentistry, the ADA moved quickly to ensure that the important role dental health plays in the maintenance of overall good health would be acknowledged on this list.

In addition, the issue of dental workforce was also given due consideration, a critical inclusion given the difficulties in attracting and retaining dental staff in rural and remote areas.

At the Rural Stakeholder Roundtable meeting with the Assistant Health Minister, Dr David Gillespie, the ADA's representative Deputy CEO Eithne Irving made the case for dentistry to fall into the purview of the new Commissioner, an argument which was accepted and saw the scope of the position's responsibilities expanded to include the full scope of health issues in these areas.

This article was originally sourced from ADA.