Competition, cooperation and coopetition in dentistry
We need collective networks of providers and organizations that collaborate in coopetition to help design the salary and working conditions of dentists in Portugal.
I will start some reflection on the three concepts that give the title to this chronicle, identifying the concrete example of tourism in dentistry. It is a topic of the greatest relevance, multifaceted and with variants that I will address here in a sectoral way, although it may be deepened in a future publication.
First of all, let’s remember the basics, in the current organizational context of Portuguese dentistry, consisting of about 98% of operators working exclusively in the private sector: the fact that it is made available essentially through private sector financing, in direct out-of-pocket payments, including ADSE, including public and private insurances, health plans and conventions, stimulating competition to the detriment of a more virtuous combination with other approaches that would present numerous advantages in a reality of fragmentation of thousands of clinics and dental offices.
You can read the full article, in Portuguese or English, in the Portuguese monthly edition of Dentistry magazine: