Interview By Richard Goslan


T


here’s no doubt Dr Dympna Kavanagh is a busy woman. When you only have two days a week to devote


to your role as Ireland’s Chief Dental Officer (CDO), you have to make every moment count – and that’s exactly what Dr Kavanagh is trying to do. When Ireland’s Dental magazine


sat down with Dr Kavanagh in her office in the Department of Health Building in central Dublin, she was in a flurry of activity, preparing for the next stage in the development of the new national Oral Health Policy, which as CDO she is leading. It is a three-year project to review


the previous policy, which dates back over 20 years, and was key to Dr Kavanagh taking on the CDO role. “I had been working within the


operational side of the Health Service Executive (HSE), and one of the real frustrations for all of us was that we were dealing with an Oral Health Policy which was from 1994,” she said. “There is still a lot which is valuable from that policy, but obvi- ously it needs to be refreshed and updated. So we wanted to have a chance to look at the policy again, and from that perspective, there has been an energy and eagerness from everyone who wants to develop it.” The project includes a study


of needs assessment, which will inform how new oral health services should be provided. The second part is a review of resources. Thirdly, there is an extensive consul- tation under way with relevant stakeholders, including the public, on new ways of delivering oral health services.


To support the policy and ensure


it is informed by evidence, the Oral Health Policy Academic Refer- ence Group has been established. The group will build on the core strengths of academics across several oral health and other rele- vant disciplines, and will help to determine the quality and relevance of existing data and requirements for further work. “The Academic Reference Group


is predominantly made up from the dental community,” said Dr Kavanagh. “They’ve given up a huge amount of their time, and all of their expertise and experience. The amount of work and input and energy they have put in has been phenomenal. “We already have 70 stakeholders


from all of the different dental organisations and from institutions across the dental community. Now, the Academic Reference Group is taking the opportunity to air all of the work it has completed in the last year, and share it among its peers and colleagues and say listen, we want to hear your comments. “It also provides an opportunity


for the stakeholders themselves to come fresh to the table and put forward any new ideas. It’s our first dip into the water to go out to the stakeholders to get their views and feelings and get that input, as well as the hardcore evidence from the population.” Dr Kavanagh’s background in


developing policy has given her an understanding that it is critical to take a long-term view rather than a rapid, quick-fix approach. Earlier in her career, she worked across five strategic health authorities in


“It’s important that we can continue to measure the health of the public”


London, which included developing promotion and prevention oral health policies for deprived commu- nities in the east end of the city. “I got a very good background


in dental public health working across these five different health authorities in London, and was able to develop policies to commission different models of health services and care,” she said. “It’s important in developing


policy to concentrate on long-term results. Your involvement from the start can feel slow and frustrating, but what you are developing has to be sustainable. “It’s also really important that we


can continue to measure the health of the public, so that health needs are built into the contract. Every time you go to see a dentist, they are looking in your mouth, they are looking at what is going on in your life, and they are picking up all of that information – but we don’t get access to it. “We want to have an opportunity


to harness all of that information so that we can inform the Oral Health Policy for the future, and understand more specifically what the problems are in Galway, or what the problems are in Kerry. “There are a variety of ways of


gathering that information but to be able to respond much faster to the needs of the population, it has to be built into the system. And that has to be ongoing so that you can respond to cutbacks, you can respond to changes in health, much faster. That’s the challenge for us in dentistry, to find a different way of thinking about it.” From Dr Kavanagh’s point of view,


that emphasis on hard facts should ensure that the Oral Health Policy is guided by data, rather than any form of anecdotal evidence.


Continued » Ireland’s Dental magazine 21


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