Newsletter: November 2017

Our IT project is well under way and we have made significant progress on work to replace our registry and financial management information system.

Next year, we plan to complete the upgrade by implementing a new document management system and business intelligence tool.

The new system will integrate our finance and registry systems, which will reduce a lot of the manual processes that Council staff are currently required to do.

What does this mean for you?

• We will provide a self-service portal for you to use
• You will have a unique username and password
• You will be able to update your own contact details
• You will be able to make your applications to Council and pay online
• You will be able to apply online:
  –      to change your practising status from practising to retention and vice versa
  –      to remove exclusions on your scope of practice
  –      for your annual practising certificate (APC) (and print it at home)
• Practitioners seeking registration (NZ graduates and overseas applicants) will also be able to apply online.

Bulk payments

Some of you will be aware that we will not be able to provide the option of bulk payments for APC applications once the new system is live.

Currently, some large employers, such as district health boards, make a bulk payment to the Council which covers oral health practitioners in their employment seeking to renew their APCs.

Our new IT system does not have the capacity to offer this service.

The new system is based upon individual access. Practitioners will need to log on to the portal, complete their application and declarations, then they will be diverted to a payment screen which will require a payment via credit card or internet banking.

Once the payment has gone through, the practitioner will be able to download their APC.

We appreciate this means some large employers will have to change their processes for payment and we understand this has the potential to cause inconvenience for some practitioners.

We have given all employers who make bulk payments advance notice so they have time to sort out how they will manage the payment process under the new system. We encourage any practitioners with concerns about the change to talk to their employers about how to manage payments in the future.

Go live date

The first priority is on establishing “back end” of the system for Council staff before registered practitioners will be given access to the new system in 2018. We expect this to be in time for the first online round of APC applications in March for dental hygienists, dental therapists, oral health therapists, orthodontic auxiliaries, dental technicians and clinical dental technicians.

Please ensure we have your current email address as this will be the initial username you use to access the system.