About Dental Protection

Dental Protection has once again been able to hold subscriptions for dentists in Malaysia, at the 2009 levels for a further year (commencing January 2010). This is the second time in three years that we have done this. You can see the current rates here.

As a not-for-profit membership organisation which is owned mutually by our members, we must not and do not set subscriptions with the intention of making a profit, but instead simply to provide properly and responsibly for the current and future needs of our members. That is why we will only ever increase our subscriptions if and when we need to do so, in order to protect the long term interests of our members. When commercial insurance companies are looking nervously at their profit margins and pricing as they try to re-build their asset base from the shocks of 2008 and 2009, there has never been a better time to be a member of Dental Protection and MPS. We have weathered the recent global financial storms remarkably well, and since every member co-owns this mutual organisation you will be pleased to know that our funding levels have never been stronger.

The only bad news I have to report is that the legal costs we have incurred in Malaysia, defending members on case-related matters in 2009, has easily exceeded anything we have ever experienced previously. Most of these costs are being incurred on a small number of quite old cases, but almost without exception they involve some crucially important points of principle, which need to be fought for the long-term interests of everyone.

Other matters

Fortunately,  the Patients Complaints Bureau Committee (PCBC) of the Malaysian Dental Association is continuing to do an excellent job under the leadership of Dr Thurairatnam, and we have full confidence in the further development of this mediation-based approach to managing patient dissatisfaction. We should not be distracted by seeking to blame those unfortunate members who happen to be on the wrong end of cases - not even the very big ones. We are all potentially just one patient away from being the next ‘headline' case statistic.

Finally, in early September, whilst attending the FDI World Dental Congress in Singapore, Dental Protection met with senior representatives from the MDA and we discussed many matters of mutual interest. Kevin Lewis together with several senior Dental Protection colleagues who are involved in supporting our members in Malaysia were joined by Tony Mason (the Chief Executive of MPS). As always this was an opportunity to strengthen existing relationships and build new ones.