Jane Dodds is pressing the Welsh Government to improve dental services in her region.
The Mid and West Wales MS asked at the Senedd how the Government has increased access to NHS dental care for adults and children.
Video from Senedd.tv
The Mid and West Wales MS asked at the Senedd how the Government has increased access to NHS dental care for adults and children.
Video from Senedd.tv
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00:00 How has the Welsh Government increased access to NHS dental care for adults and children?
00:05 Since April 2022, practices have been offered the opportunity to work under a variation of their
00:12 UDA contract that enables them to focus on prevention and risk and needs-based treatment.
00:18 Capacity released by this shift has allowed 184,592 new adult patients and 116,894
00:30 child patients to access NHS dental care.
00:34 Y Dirprwy Lywydd / The Deputy Presiding Officer: Thank you very much for that response.
00:37 Jane Hutt AM: Thank you for your engagement on dentistry. In contrast to the Conservatives,
00:43 I feel that you have certainly supported the calls for a wider scope on dentistry. For example,
00:51 you helped with funding a dentist in Llandrindod Wells. Mid and west Wales is sometimes considered
00:58 a bit of a dental desert, but that dentist has certainly helped, and there is more to be done
01:05 clearly. I welcome the Government's commitment to reforms aimed at improving accessibility,
01:13 but the pace does remain agonisingly slow. In my own county of Powys, Powys Teaching
01:22 Health Board shows that, despite gradual declines, there are still 4,361 adults still waiting for an
01:31 NHS dentist and 274 children. There is one good thing to report about Powys Teaching Health Board,
01:39 which is that it has a dental helpline that is very positive. So, could you just outline the
01:46 thoughts you have about a national dental helpline in order to help people who are waiting for an
01:52 NHS dentist to connect with potential vacancies? Diolch yn fawr iawn.
01:56 Julie James AM: Diolch yn fawr iawn, Jane, and thank you for keeping me on my toes on this issue.
02:01 I can always be assured that this is an issue that you will ask questions about, and it does
02:07 make a difference, and I'd like to thank you for that. I don't think 300,000 new dental appointments
02:15 in the NHS is insignificant, but, as you say, there's an access gap for those who want NHS
02:22 dentistry. It's not easy when so many NHS dentists have moved to the private sector,
02:28 and that is a challenge for us. That's why I have asked the dental team to come up with a
02:33 10-year plan for what this looks like now and what it will look like in future. Part of the
02:40 challenge there, of course, is how we finance that, and that is one of the greatest challenges
02:45 we face now. I know that there have been concerns in the past in particular about getting dentists
02:53 in in the areas that both you and I represent. You're quite right, Powys, it was good to be
02:59 able to support the new dentists there. I'm delighted to see that Aberystwyth University
03:05 is developing a proposal to train people in relation to dentistry in that part of the world
03:12 where there is a real challenge, and that was something I discussed with the new chair of
03:18 Hywel Dda this morning, although there may be other parts of the country that are also interested in
03:23 that. The other issue that I've been pursuing recently is I'm very concerned about the low
03:30 numbers of Welsh domiciled students who are being enrolled in the only dental school in Wales, in
03:39 Cardiff University. Very low numbers. I had a meeting with them last week to really try and
03:47 get them to the same place as the medical school in Cardiff has got to. It doesn't happen without
03:54 effort, but they have given us some assurances on that. So, I do hope that they will hold to the
04:00 commitment that they made to me last week, which is to see an increase in the next three years
04:06 so that the numbers will reach around 40% of the intake, which would be a massive, massive increase
04:14 because we do need Welsh domiciled students. They're more likely to retain their place in Wales
04:22 and to be able to serve our public.
04:24 Question 8, Jonathan Saunders.