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In this editorial I’d also like to reflect on the experience, observations and feedback from my first visit to South Africa since before COVID-19. The primary purpose of my visit was to attend and present at the 2022 SADA Congress. The visit also gave me the opportunity for wider engagement with many other stakeholders and, for the first time, to visit the Dental Protection offices in Menlyn and meet the most fantastic group of engaged and passionate individuals now working for Dental Protection in South Africa and serving our members locally. We keep saying to our members in South Africa that we are here for the long run and the investment in a local case and claims handling subsidiary is proof, if any were needed, of our commitment to you all.

The SADA Congress provided me with the opportunity to see many of my friends and colleagues again. It also provided the opportunity for our business development team to finally meet each other face-to-face for the first time in three years. For me it was also a time to reflect on what has changed, apart from the circumference around the equator of my stomach. There were a few suits that had not been out for a while and were just a little bit tighter than they used to be!

The SADA Congress coincided with the news of some major disruption within the medical malpractice insurance sector, with the possibility that some medical doctors and possibly dentists will be left uninsured despite paying their annual premiums in good faith as the insurer fell into curatorship. Dental Protection will never price for profit and nor will we undercut the true price of risk for short-term gains. We also cannot indemnify procedures that fall outside your scope of practice, and again the subject of indemnity for non-surgical aesthetic procedures came up in my conversations with members and non-members. Undertaking procedures and interventions outside your scope of practice is unlawful and the limitations of scope provide a very convenient excuse for a commercial insurer to repudiate a claim you thought was covered by your policy.

The opening ceremony of the congress and the gala dinner taught us everything we needed to know about the future of dentistry in South Africa. Prize winners and class reps from the class of 2022, also known as the pandemic dentists, spoke with a confidence, humility and respect for their fellow colleagues and teachers. We met with the new president and secretary of the Young Dentists Council (YDC) to see how Dental Protection can help support the developing careers of young dentists. We have some great plans for collaboration, as we also do with the Dental Practitioners Association (DPA), and we continue to work with Dr Twala and his colleagues to support the DPA with webinars and face-to-face talks at their own congress.

For me the highlight of the trip was our engagement with the dental schools. On two consecutive days we were invited to provide curriculum lectures to the final year students and staff at SMU. It was an honour and I really enjoyed the interaction and the opportunity to share our knowledge. We have also completed a series of curriculum webinars for the other three dental schools, and I need to mention the opportunity my colleague Zodwa Mahlangu and I were afforded, to spend a couple of hours with Professor Sophy van der Berg-Cloete and her colleagues at UP. I learned many things that help me better understand what is happening in clinical practice.

Finally, it had not occurred to me that there was uncertainty about how a member of Dental Protection should contact us for advice and support. The following options exist:

1. Call our dentolegal advice line on 0800014780
2. Request assistance by email to [email protected]
3. Contact Ruth Boice at SADA by email at [email protected]

I hope you enjoy this edition of Riskwise.

Dr Alasdair McKelvie BDS LLM

Editor in Chief Riskwise South Africa

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