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.
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