The
President’s Report
Dr Sean Archibald ADAWA President
Dear Members, In a month were we once again had to deal with the closure of dental practice due to the threat of uncontrolled COVID spread, I wanted to take the opportunity to thank all of you for your support and patience during what is always an interesting time at the branch. Similarly, our office staff are equally appreciative to have received so many messages of appreciation and have asked me to pass on their thanks. We are incredibly fortunate in the way this scenario played out and although I have no interest in entertaining this problem ever again, I will say we are very well prepared for the eventuality, should it arise. As many of you will be aware, this lockdown led us to accelerate the rollout of the “Partners in Practice” program, which we have been working on with both ADAWA Council and the office staff for the last few months. Underpinning this program is a move towards a collaborative approach to engaging with all parts of the dental profession in a more structured and formal setting. We all know the work that ADAWA does but distributing this message to a wider audience has always been difficult. Obviously, we would have preferred to roll out this new initiative in a more controlled manner, but this timing allowed us to reach over 2,000 new people in the WA dental profession in two weeks. With this rapid expansion, we now have a lot of work to do to convert this into a program that benefits the dental profession in WA and, therefore, our members. As with any change, there are concerns and I thank those members who have expressed them to us either directly or indirectly. Rest assured, we have had long discussions to identify risk elements in moving into this space and have a very active review process to ensure this continues. I have high hopes for this initiative in the years to come and I will keep you updated as things develop. In the meantime, please ask anyone you know in the WA dental profession to join the ADAWA Partners in Practice Facebook Group. In further developments in our services offerings through the branch, you will find an article in this edition on the company ONDA. This is the first in a series of new corporate partnerships that we have selected on your behalf. Although not our core purpose, we expect that some members will find the services very useful and we will continue to bring them to your attention.
Cheers,
Sean
adawa.com.au
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