Senedd members debated a ‘radical’ bill to introduce a legally binding minimum staff level for NHS dental services in Wales as experts warn of ‘desperate times’ for Welsh dentistry.
Mabon ap Gwynfor, Plaid Cymru’s shadow health secretary, suggested that the minimum staff level should be based on population need across Wales. If passed, the bill would see health boards given a legal responsibility to calculate the amount of dental staff required and take ‘all reasonable steps’ to achieve it.
Debated on 30 April, the motion also called for ministers to acknowledge the right of every resident of Welsh citizen to access NHS dentistry. Finally, it asked ministers to develop a workforce plan to sustain the NHS dental profession and publish reports on its progress.
‘We won’t see NHS dental services in future’
Mabon ap Gwynfor warned that NHS dentistry in Wales is in crisis. He said: ‘This isn’t child’s play we’re talking about here. This is a crisis. If there aren’t fundamental changes soon, we won’t see NHS dental services in future. There is almost 40% less dental work being done on the NHS today and it’s people who are suffering – it’s poorer people who are suffering the most.’
In particular he said that patients are being ‘squeezed out of NHS dentistry’ and forced to ‘go without’. According to ap Gwynfor, these ‘desperate times demand a willingness to consider radical alternatives’.
Senedd members voted in favour of the motion by 28 to two, with 17 abstentions. However, it met with resistance from Labour ministers.
‘We must deliver a new general dental services contract’
Welsh health minister Jeremy Miles said that the proposed model was more applicable to nursing than dentistry. This is because most dentists are commissioned through private businesses rather than employed directly by health boards such as in the case of hospital dentistry.
Miles argued that more progress would be achieved through contract reform. He said: ‘To improve NHS dentistry and to improve access … we must deliver a new general dental services contract. This in fact is the single most important thing that we can do.’
He then concluded that these reforms would bring NHS dentistry into the 21st century.
Mabon ap Gwynfor disagreed that the Labour government was taking the right approach to NHS dentistry. He said: ‘This Labour government’s actions are actually pushing more people into having to pay for basic dental care even within an NHS practice.’
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