Wednesday, July 3, 2024, 18:08
The territorial delegate for Health and Consumption of the Andalusian Government, Juan de la Cruz Belmonte, has inaugurated, together with the president of the College of Dentists, Sonia Berbel, the conference on the Comprehensive Oral Health Plan of Andalusia 2023-2027, which has been presented by the Coordinator of the Comprehensive Oral Health Plan of Andalusia, Alfonso García. It is an ambitious project that proposes greater accessibility for users to oral health services, as well as the renewal of equipment. The investment will be greater than 3.5 million euros throughout Andalusia and more than 700,000 euros for the province of Almería.
The plan, as detailed by the delegate, “intends to update and improve the equipment of dental offices with the aim of improving the quality of dental care and incorporating advanced technologies in both Primary Care and Hospital Care.” “This new equipment benefits professionals, providing greater efficiency and precision, and also the users themselves, providing greater comfort, safety and personalization in treatments,” he said.
It also includes the creation of new dental offices with the aim of bringing dental health services closer to citizens. Thus, 17 new offices will be opened in Andalusia, of which three will be in the province of Almería, specifically in Serón, Sorbas and Carboneras, under the premise that all citizens have a public dental office less than 30 minutes away from their primary health area. As for hospital dentistry, the network of dentists will be strengthened, providing all provinces with this resource. This will mean a significant improvement in hospital care.
During the presentation of the Plan, Belmonte stressed that “maintaining a healthy mouth is not only essential to enjoying a good quality of life, but that oral health is also closely related to the prevention of serious illnesses, such as heart disease and diabetes.” For this reason, he added, “our commitment to oral health is increasingly demanding.”
The delegate has stressed the effort to train in order to have a network of references available to users, which will result in an increase in the quality of care provided. For this reason, in collaboration with IAVANTE, the ‘Referentes’ Programme has been launched, a specialised training through University Diplomas from the Faculties of Dentistry in Granada and Seville for professionals in the areas of knowledge of Oral Medicine, Oral Surgery, Paediatric Dentistry and Endodontics. This Programme aims for specialised dentists to improve the care of the population in Primary Care, in addition to the qualifications in Hospital Dentistry and Endodontics that are the responsibility of Hospital Care dentists.
As Alfonso García explained, “the measures included in the Plan include oral health examinations for seniors in nursing homes from the age of 65, as well as for cancer patients, pregnant women and people with disabilities.”
This network will improve coverage and accessibility to specific treatments for the population; reduce referrals to secondary care and increase the effectiveness of primary care; and increase user satisfaction with oral health services, while improving the image of the dentist as an important professional for the health system.
This oral health check-up will be carried out by public dentists from the district or health management area to institutionalized patients in their geriatric centers. In such a way, all patients who come will receive an oral health examination on site and a treatment plan to be carried out at their health center or reference hospital. In turn, training and prevention activities will be carried out on the most prevalent oral diseases, in addition to raising awareness among caregivers about the importance of oral lesions for the prevention and/or early diagnosis of oral cancer.
Prevention and promotion of oral health
In general terms, the Comprehensive Oral Health Plan of Andalusia 2023-2027 aims to prevent and improve the quality of oral health, as well as to reduce the morbidity of oral diseases among the Andalusian population and improve the quality of life of people affected by these pathologies.
Likewise, its objectives include improving oral health services in Primary Care, through their reorganization; optimizing care in Hospital Dentistry; encouraging health promotion in dental services; increasing the recruitment of dental care; guaranteeing health care to specific groups, from equity and homogeneity in dental services; improving the training of professionals, adapted to advances in promotion, prevention, early diagnosis and oral interventions, and with a gender perspective; promoting research in the areas of oral health and dentistry; and improving the quality of oral health information systems.
The Plan has four strategic axes that cover 13 lines of action. The first of these axes is related to the functional organization of health services and includes three lines of action: the organization of the Clinical Management Unit-Oral Health, hospital dentistry and health promotion and intervention in the community.
The second of the axes is about the management of the care process for the general population and specific groups, structured into seven lines of action: care production in oral care, dental care provision for children, dental care provision for patients with disabilities and medically compromised patients in Primary Care, dental care provision for people in situations of social vulnerability, dental care for pregnant women, for the elderly, and for cancer patients.
Training and research are the central themes of the third strategic axis, which addresses these two lines of action: training and research. Finally, the fourth axis is about information systems, with a single line of action that aims to improve the quality of information systems.
The Department of Health and Consumer Affairs has increased its dental staff by 7.83% over the last five years, reaching 274 professionals, with the aim of strengthening the SAS services, such as the dental care programme for children and adolescents aged 6 to 15, which includes health promotion, preventive and restorative dentistry.