Where other providers have come and gone, we’re here to stay
We’re a member-owned, not-for-profit organisation that uses a discretionary approach to providing assistance.
We know we’re different, but we’re different in a good way. Our membership is designed to give you the protection you need to practise with confidence in today’s complex and uncertain healthcare environment.
Mutual. It’s more than just a word.
Mutual means we’re owned by members. And that matters.
As a mutual we bring you and other healthcare professionals together in a common purpose: collective protection against the risks involved in clinical practice. Being a mutual means your needs are at the heart of everything we do.
We are different to shareholder-owned companies whose primary purpose is to make money for other people.
We don’t answer to shareholders. There is no one to pay dividends to or to tell us to abandon our purpose because the profit isn’t there. All our decisions are focused on doing what’s best for our membership.
We take mutuality seriously because it’s our commitment to you, not just today, but for as long as you need us.
Every Rand we collect is used to support members
Members often ask us how we can be not-for-profit. It simply means we don’t make a profit for shareholders, because we don’t have any.
Instead, any surplus is reinvested to meet the needs of members. We put every Rand back into the fund, so that we can continue to provide the quality of protection you need and deserve.
That means we’re always seeking to improve the benefits and services offered to members, adapting to the emerging threats in clinical negligence, and challenging the root causes of the claims environment.
Strength in numbers
It can often be years before a case is brought against you and fully resolved.
By pricing for the long-term we maintain a strong mutual fund so if our members face complaints or claims, we’re in a good position to take on the financial burden they bring.
It’s the reason we don’t need to impose financial limits or require you to pay excesses. We can take care of all of the legal costs and compensation payments down to the last Rand.
We take a long-term approach to managing member funds and we do this because we are driven by our members’ needs. That is why members can trust us to be there when they need us, no matter how far into the future.
Our discretionary approach to providing assistance isn’t about being able to say no...
...it’s about having the flexibility to ask ourselves ‘how can we help?’
We are different because we’re informed by the expertise and combined wisdom of your peers: dentists and legal experts who know your healthcare system.
We take a flexible, adaptable approach to protecting you in a fast-moving, ever-changing environment. Our approach is fair, considered and empathetic.
- The freedom to consider unusual requests for help.
- Informed experts exercising good judgment and insight.
- Flexibility to respond to unforeseen changes in the medicolegal environment.
When only a dentist's insight will do
All your membership benefits are shaped and informed by our team of dentists, dentolegal experts and locally based legal firms.
Your membership includes the right to request access to the following:
- Indemnity for clinical negligence claims arising from your professional practice.*
- Help responding to patient complaints.
- Representation in HPCSA investigations, inquests, inquiries, and police investigations arising from the provision of clinical care.
- Assistance with the preparation for disciplinary hearings when of a clinical nature, and the compiling of reports.
- Independent and confidential counselling service to help with the stress you’re experiencing from a complaint, claim or other dentolegal issue.
- Emergency dentolegal advice available 24/7.
- Protection for Good Samaritan acts.
- Free risk management workshops and online learning modules with verifiable CEU.
- Help with unwanted media attention.
- Online case reports and dentolegal factsheets.
- Leading journal Riskwise.
*Indemnity for claims does not extend to any employer or state indemnified practice that you undertake in addition to your private practice.