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A Message for Corporate Member Provincial Dental Associations
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The consequences of the COVID-19 pandemic are very serious for Canadian dentists and their patients. The Canadian Dental Association (CDA) has been active in addressing this unprecedented and evolving situation. CDA is committed to doing all that it can to support Canadians and the dental profession in these challenging times.
CDA COVID-19 Response Team
In February, CDA established a COVID-19 Response Team that brings together the CDA leadership and senior staff along with the Executive Directors of the CDA Corporate Members. The CDA COVID-19 Response Team is led by Dr. Aaron Burry, CDA’s Associate Director, Professional Affairs, who is a dental public health specialist.
CDA meets weekly with the Corporate Member Provincial Dental Association (PDA) Presidents and CEOs. The goals of these meetings are to:
- share information on the evolution of the pandemic;
- assess the impact the pandemic is having on dentists and the practise of dentistry; and
- discuss options on the way forward.
All elements of the pandemic are discussed including scientific, clinical, economic, and business, as well as the related personal well-being aspects. The top current issues of discussion include:
- the definition of emergency dental treatment;
- the supply of personal protective equipment (PPE);
- teledentistry;
- infection control;
- pharmaceutical protocols;
- business interruptions/recovery.
Below is a summary of CDA’s COVID-19 pandemic-related work underway for the week of March 23-27, 2020. CDA will provide regular status updates on the ongoing progress of the COVID-19 Response Team – please stay tuned for more.
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Advocacy Updates
CDA is in ongoing direct contact with several federal government departments to explain the challenges that are faced by dentists and their oral health teams due to the many disruptions brought about by the pandemic.
CDA is actively gathering, assessing and seeking clarification of the various federal support programs that have been announced and may be of assistance to the dental profession. CDA also participates in two networks of health organizations that are jointly making representations to the government.
Here is a quick summary of CDA’s COVID-19 advocacy/government-related work from this week:
- Roadmap for dental offices and employees on how to access federal and provincial relief funding: CDA developed a Roadmap to help dentists and their employees navigate the government’s financial support programs for workers and businesses in light of COVID-19 issues. Due to the urgency of this request, an initial text version was circulated to Corporate Member PDAs on March 26, 2020. This is living document and will be updated and shared on a regular basis. This document has been added to the CDA Repository (more details below), and will be further enhanced over the coming days for publication on the CDA website and in a printable PDF format. The French language version of the Roadmap will be available soon.
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Other Important Updates
- Transfer of benefits: As requested by PDAs, CDA has contacted and is investigating the possibility with CLHIA of transferring benefits that would have been left unused in 2020 to 2021, to allow plan beneficiaries to have coverage of care they could not receive in 2020 as a result of the pandemic. CDA will communicate further updates to PDAs as information becomes available.
- Teledentistry: While the right technology is available to carry out teledentistry in Canada, discussions are underway related to the determination of fees / codes for consistent use across Canada. CDA is actively engaged in discussions and is developing an options paper for consideration by stakeholders.
- Managing the treatment of dental emergencies during crisis: CDA has committed to gather and share information about a standardized way of managing dental emergency treatment across the country. CDA has reached out to surgical specialty experts. Regulations and guidelines are evolving and changing rapidly in response to public health measures that are being implemented among Canadian provinces and territories. CDA’s best advice to PDAs is that dentists should continue to contact their provincial or territorial dental association or local health units for guidance on how to manage dental emergencies. As with other national voluntary organizations, CDA is dedicated to disseminating information, but it does not have the authority to mandate actions for the provision of oral health care.
- Privacy and electronic communications: CDA contacted a privacy lawyer to provide general guidance for dentists regarding privacy requirements when they communicate with patients using electronic means. As soon as this guidance is available, it will be provided to Corporate Members for their use.
- Knowledge and Information Broker: CDA facilitates the exchange of information among CDA’s Corporate Members, the PDAs. We collect and organize scientific, clinical, practice and business information from various sources. CDA Oasis and CDA Essentials will continue to publish during the pandemic. CDA Oasis has produced three new videos this week featuring CDA’s COVID-19 Response Team leader Dr. Burry and CDA’s President, Dr. Alexander (Sandy) Mutchmor.
Links to these videos will also be catalogued in CDA’s Repository, and available for PDAs to share with their member dentists, as they see fit. (More details about the Repository below).
- Social media: CDA is posting content on its social media channels (Facebook, Twitter, Instagram) to encourage individuals to maintain some sense of normalcy while social distancing measures are in effect. Posts will include information on how to maintain good oral health at home, liking/sharing important COVID-19 personal health and safety awareness posts from federal government agencies and other key health organizations (WHO), and educating individuals about CDA’s ongoing advocacy efforts with government on behalf of the dental profession.
- CDA website communications: CDA’s key message on its website is to direct dentists to the provincial dental associations and dental regulatory body websites for information. The general public is directed to consult the public website and communiqués of their provincial/territory health authorities.
- Donating PPE and other services: CDA has committed to looking into appropriate avenues for donating PPE. The federal government has created a portal to procure excess PPE from organizations / ask about ability to provide service(s): Buy and Sell. PDAs are encouraged to make their member dentists aware of this portal and/or other donation avenues in your communities (i.e. hospital drop-offs).
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CDA COVID-19 Resource Repository
Now available!
CDA serves as an information repository for PDAs by collecting advice and available COVID-19 resources from external organizations and any sources that PDAs wish to share. This information in the Repository is available to be used by the PDAs for onward transmission to their respective dentist members, as deemed appropriate.
Location: The CDA COVID-19 Resource Repository is housed on the CDA Board Resource website, where PDA Executives Directors and CDA Board Members can access at: https://boardresources.ca/covid/.
Log-in: Please use your existing CDA Board Resources log-in credentials to access the CDA COVID-19 Resource Repository. If you have trouble logging in, please email CDA’s Manager of Information Technology, Dean Smith at dsmith@cda-adc.ca.
In future communications, this section will include the link to the Repository and only highlight new or updated resources that have been added.
Sharing PDA resources with CDA: PDA Executives are encouraged to share any materials from your organization with CDA. To include your resources in the CDA COVID-19 Resource Repository, please email CDA’s Communications Manager, Zelda Burt at zburt@cda-adc.ca. Adding your organization’s resources may be helpful for other PDAs who have not yet developed similar content for their members.
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