Newsletter: December 2017

I hope you are all enjoying the festive season and looking forward to a well-earned rest over the Christmas break.

In reflecting on the year, I am proud of the work that has been achieved and excited by the improvements that we will see as some of our key projects come to fruition over the next couple of years. It’s fair to say it has been a challenging year, in part due to the size and complexity of some of the projects we are working on, and not least due to our building displacement.

This building displacement saw us moving out of 80 The Terrace in February as a result of damage sustained during the Kaikoura earthquakes. This move caused a significant extra workload in terms of finding new temporary premises while also working with the owners of 80 The Terrace to ensure we understand the implications of the repairs that are being done to that building and the implications for our lease.

Our one-year lease in our temporary premises on Willis Street will expire in April—at this stage, where we move is still to be determined, but we will advise practitioners as soon as this has been confirmed.

Our IT project has been a huge piece of work for us this year and we provide an update later in this newsletter.

The Council has decided to extend the timeframe to ensure we get this important project right before we go live with our online practitioner portal. We had anticipated the online portal would be available for practitioners to use in early 2018, but we have now deferred the go-live date until after the next APC round for oral health practitioners in April.

This is primarily because our building displacement is yet to be resolved. The April deadline for moving out of our current temporary premises will mean the secretariat team will be managing a relocation, an APC round and the financial end of year in March. The Council considered launching a new IT system at the same time was not feasible, particularly given the small size of the secretariat team.

This means the next APC round for all non-dentist practitioners in March 2018 will be a paper-based process, and we will be mailing renewal forms out in February as normal. We appreciate your patience—this system is going to be a fantastic improvement for practitioners once it is complete.

Thank you to everyone who has contributed to our work this year—we thank you all for your commitment and support.

I would like to wish you all a Merry Christmas and a happy and safe holiday season.

Marie Warner
Chief Executive