Shadow Cabinet Secretary for North Wales and Clwyd West MS Darren Millar has slammed the Labour Welsh Government for failing to get to grips with the NHS dentistry crisis facing Wales.

Questioning the First Minister in yesterday’s meeting of the Welsh Parliament over the shortage of NHS dentists throughout Wales, Darren said that the Welsh Government’s plan to address the problem is simply not working and called for an overhaul of their contract to ensure dentists are better supported. 

He said:    

“First Minister, your Welsh Government plan on dentistry is not working. There are over 700,000 people in north Wales, and only 170,000 people saw a dentist in the past 12 months. That’s clearly not good enough. 

“I have constituents who travel to Scotland in order to access an NHS dentist and others who are travelling to Albania to get their teeth sorted. Why isn’t your plan working? Well, it’s your contract. Your contract is not good enough. It doesn’t give the right sort of support to dentists to encourage them to stay within the NHS. 

“Will you look again at your new contract to make sure that it is fit for purpose and go back to the drawing board, working with the British Dental Association, to come up with something that is more attractive and keeps people in the profession and NHS that they want to work in?” 

In her response, the First Minister said they are reforming the contract.  

She added: 

“We’ve been working with the sector very closely to make sure that NHS work is more attractive and to make sure that we increase the dental workforce. As I say, that’s the broader dental workforce, not just the dentists.” 

Speaking afterwards, Darren said: 

“I am pleased they are looking at the contract again, but change can’t come soon enough. 

“The Welsh Government was warned that unless it acted to address concerns raised by the dentistry profession about its new dental contract, many dentists in Wales would withdraw from the provision of NHS services, but it refused to listen and we now find ourselves in this position.

“It is barbaric that in this day and age we have people in Wales who are being left with no other option than to pull their own teeth out. It should never have been allowed to get to this state!”