10,000 dentist places on way
AN ADDITIONAL 10,000 NHS dental places will be created in Wales to improve access to appointments – but a leading union says the investment goes nowhere near far enough.
The Welsh Government has today announced an extra £1.3m to boost dental places in some of the most deprived areas of the country.
Research shows poor dental hygiene is more common in areas of high deprivation, and waits for an NHS dentist tend to be longer.
As part of this investment, £450,000 will go to Cardiff and Vale University Health Board and £300,000 to Aneurin Bevan University Health Board to provide access to new NHS dentistry places.
But the British Dental Association says the cash injection represents a just quarter of the sum taken out of the dental budget each year in Wales.
Health Secretary Vaughan Gething said: “Improving NHS dental services and patients’ access to them is a priority for the Welsh Government.
“I’m really pleased that the investment I’m announcing today will create 10,000 new NHS dental places.
“This will improve access to NHS dental services for people in some of the most deprived areas of Wales.”
In response, the British Dental Association (BDA) says while it welcomes the funding, it doesn’t address the fact money is being taken out off the dental budget year-on-year.
Figures obtained by the BDA show £6.6m was removed from the dental budget in 2016 as a result of NHS dentists not hitting the tough targets set by government in their contracts.
The BDA claims this money, known as “clawback”, is not reallocated to NHS dental services in Wales.
Katrina Clarke, chairwoman of the BDA’s Welsh general dental practice committee, said: “Year in, year out, money allocated to NHS dentistry has been used to balance the Welsh Government’s books. While we welcome commitments to spend the dental budget on dentistry, this money represents just a quarter of what’s been taken out of the system each year.
“Creative accounting does not constitute new investment. The best thing the Welsh Government could do is commit to ensure all money set aside for dentistry is actually spent on improving the oral health of children and adults in Wales.”
In addition, the Welsh Government says new investment is being made to strengthen specialist children’s dentistry services. This will see new consultant and specialist appointments being made to work with existing community and hospital-based services.
The Welsh Government claims it will help increase access to specialist paediatric dental services closer to home and ensure those children with highest treatment need have timely access to treatment.
A spokesman said: “The new specialists will work closely with general dental practice teams to improve children’s preventive care and treatment services in NHS dental services in Wales.
“It’s expected up to 3,000 additional patients per year will be able to access specialist paediatric dentistry services as a result, which will reduce waiting times for hospital-based services.”