Doing it the HA-AD way

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Health Authority Abu Dhabi (HA-AD) has hit the headlines in the last year, courtesy of its ambitious plans for the emirate's health sector.

Now, with a semi-privatised health service and a landmark ruling on medical insurance under its belt, prosthodontist Dr Amira Al-Qayedi tells MED how HA-AD's new policies are proving a pain for public sector dentists.

Dentists across the UAE are facing staff shortages - is this also an issue in Abu Dhabi's public sector?

There is a shortage of dental assistants and it is really a nightmare for us. The number of dentists far outweighs the number of assistants - the low salaries don't attract them to the UAE. Compared to their home countries, the wages are typically very low.

The importance of the dental assistant is also largely ignored, so when [the government] funds a new clinic they only think about getting the doctor, but the assistant is an integral part of the clinic. The cost of hiring a dental assistant doesn't get factored into the budget.

What impact does this have on government dentists' workloads?

It relies on the dentists to do all the work, which is impossible. If I have to work with other dentists in the clinic as an assistant, it can lead to cross-infection.

The Ministry of Health has suggested hiring failed medical nurses as dental assistants. Could you see HA-AD following suit?

They are also hiring nurses who are not from a dental background or they are employing dental technicians that end up working as dental assistants. But this can cause its own problems.

The technicians have to be trained because they do not know how to mix materials properly or how to clean and disinfect the clinic. You have to spend resources educating them and then there is the risk that when you do, they will leave for better money elsewhere.

HA-AD has established rules in which medical nurses must pass an exam before being licensed for work as a dental assistant, but these rules are not applied to dental technicians working as assistants.

HA-AD has said it is introducing a privatised approach to healthcare. How has that had an impact on government sector dentists?

It has become the same in the public sector and in private practice. In the public sector it is all about statistics and performance, while in the private sector, dentists are keen to see as many patients as they can because it all about the money.

The issue is that the patients don't have any alternative, because they will face the same problems.

Has HA-AD created specific performance policies for its dentists?

Nothing is specifically designed for dentistry - the policies are geared towards the end of year statistics. The performance appraisals take into account the quantity and not the quality of the work and these same parameters are used to evaluate every employee in all sectors of the clinic.

HA-AD must come up with a special appraisal for dentists and it has to be done in an objective way. At the moment it is all geared towards statistics at the end of the year.

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