Adopt policy on the Professional Qualifications Directive and the Medical Devices Directives
Representatives of CED member organisations met in Budapest, Hungary on 27 and 28 May 2011 for a regular six-monthly General Meeting, under the chairmanship of CED President Dr. Wolfgang Doneus. The meeting was hosted by the National Committee for Hungarian Dentistry, composed of the Dental Section of the Hungarian Dental Chamber and the Hungarian Dental Association.

The Council of European Dentists (CED) is a European not-for-profit association which represents over 327,000 practising dentists across Europe. It is composed of 32 national dental associations and chambers from 30 European countries. Its key objectives are to promote high standards of oral healthcare and effective patient-safety centred professional practice across Europe, including through regular contacts with other European organisations and EU institutions.

For better oral health of all EU citizens: Mutual integration of oral and general health!

European dentists called for an integrated, common-risk approach to oral and general health. They noted that risk factors for oral diseases are the same as for major chronic non-communicable diseases such as obesity, heart disease, stroke, cancers, diabetes and mental illness. Presence of an untreated oral disease in a patient also increases the risk of the patient developing one or more of other major chronic diseases.
Rather than attempting to tackle each chronic disease in isolation, CED members called for a more effective approach, based on sharing of knowledge and cooperation between the patients and the healthcare professionals in primary care, as well as on disease prevention and health promotion activities directed at the common-risk factors.
They stressed the need for EU Member States to actively support oral health promotion and called on the EU to promote a comprehensive approach to fostering good health through improving information on risk factors, facilitating cooperation between stakeholders and between Member States and supporting general and oral health promotion and prevention campaigns at EU level.   
CED Resolution:  For better oral health of all EU citizens: Mutual integration of oral and general health!

Review of Directive 2005/36/EC

In advance of the anticipated release of the Green Paper on the Directive on the recognition of professional qualifications (Directive 2005/36/EC), CED members affirmed their views on the possible changes of the Directive.
In an updated resolution “Review of Directive 2005/36/EC”, European dentists strongly supported maintaining the principle of automatic recognition of professional qualifications for sectoral professions as well as the regime for temporary provision of services based on a pro-forma registration.  To streamline the procedures related to the two regimes, CED members called for greater use of electronic communications and other new technologies in dentists’ contacts with competent authorities as well as increasing cooperation between competent authorities, including by extending the use of the Internal Market Information System (IMI). However, they were in favour of simplification of the current recognition procedures only as long as this did not compromise patient safety.
CED members stressed the need to ensure that all European dentists are educated to a high level, including by specifying in the Directive that dental training should consist of at least 5 years and 5000 hours of training.
CED Resolution:  Review of Directive 2005/36/EC

Revision of medical devices directives

CED members noted the intention by the European Commission to present in 2012 a proposal for a fundamental revision of the three Medical Devices Directives (Directives 90/385/EEC, 93/42/EEC and 98/79/EEC) and asked for the changes to be aimed particularly at increasing the safety of patients and the quality of medical devices available in the EU market.
European dentists are concerned about the potential dangers of outsourcing of manufacturing of medical devices, specifically of dental prostheses, often to low wage countries, and believe that appropriate safeguards should be introduced to ensure their safety and quality. CED called for strengthening the requirements for provision of information to the patients and to the end users on the origin of medical devices. The current rules allow importers to make minor adjustments to the medical devices produced outside of the EU, to declare themselves as manufacturers and to market the devices as being produced in the EU.
CED Resolution:  CED position on the revision of the EU regulatory framework for medical devices

E-Health Working Group

In response to the growing relevance of electronic information and communication technologies for healthcare and increasing number of e-Health initiatives initiated by the European Commission, CED members decided to establish a CED Working Group on e-Health. The Working Group under the leadership of Dr. Piret Väli of Estonia will monitor EU political and legislative developments formulate CED policy and facilitate the exchange of experiences connected to the use of e-Health solutions among European dentists.

For more information contact:

Nina Brandelet-Bernot
Head of CED Brussels Office
Tel: + 32 2 736 34 29
ced@eudental.eu
http://www.eudental.eu