The Blair government ruined Welsh dentistry

SIR – I am writing in response to your report, “Surge in dental insurance amid NHS crisis” (April 19).

In 1964 I was one of the 22 students who made up the first intake of Cardiff dental school, opened as part of the Welsh National School of Medicine. The idea was to increase the size of the profession in Wales, because it was severely short of staff and the nation’s dental health was poor.

The plan worked. We were very well trained and a large number of us remained in Wales. This continued as larger groups of students qualified. We were mainly on NHS contracts and, without doubt, improved the dental health of the population, as we all added preventative dentistry to our treatment and advised patients on oral hygiene and diet.

This system continued until 2006, when – despite protests by dentists and the British Dental Association – Tony Blair’s government introduced a new dental contract. This meant that patients who had neglected their dental health, or had serious needs such as multiple fillings, extractions and gum treatment, had to be treated at the same payment scale as a regular attender who needed only one filling.

Though this system was not brought in by a Conservative government, the party has been in power long enough to have corrected the situation. As it was, many dentists realised that they could no longer care for patients with high needs, so stopped accepting them, or switched to private dentistry.

In my opinion, this contract turned the clock back on dental health in Wales by decades. When we saw and treated those with serious needs, they would bring their children in and the attitude of the whole family – then, gradually, the entire community – to dental health would change.

As I prepare to mark 60 years of dental education in Wales, I do so with an immense feeling of sadness at the state of NHS dental care – and astonishment that it has taken so many years for this contract to be blamed. Liz Eales

Gowerton, Glamorgan