5. Will the First Minister make a statement on dental services in North Wales? OAQ(5)0441(FM)[W]

Well, the health board is working to improve the provision of dental services and progress has been made. Some 30,000 additional patients are accessing NHS dentistry than a decade ago.

You may be aware, First Minister, that the main reason that children visit emergency units today is because of tooth decay, and it’s crucial that good dental care is provided for them at an early age. But, having said that, schoolchildren from the Bala area to the outskirts of Wrexham have actually lost access to a mobile dentist who visited schools because there was no funding in the budget to buy a new vehicle. Now, there is another vehicle available, but that currently is serving as a permanent dentistry in Pwllheli, because of a shortage of dentists there. This specific service has seen 4,000 children over the past year—500 of those needed further treatment. Do you agree with me that losing that service is quite unacceptable, and what are you doing to ensure that it’s reinstated for the future?

Well, this is a temporary measure. I know that the health board are looking at fresh ways of ensuring that the service survives, and they are looking at mobile units from other areas in order to achieve that, and they are considering opportunities as regards funding a new mobile unit to ensure that this happens. In the interim, there is care available in Corwen and in Dolgellau, but these are temporary measures and the hope is that the service will restart, ultimately.

Some 40 per cent of children still don't visit the dentist regularly. A third of children are starting school each year already showing signs of tooth decay, and it's the most common single reason why children aged five to nine require admissions to hospital. Given that this north Wales mobile dental unit stopped last September, and the health board is only reporting now their bid for funding to purchase a replacement vehicle and looking at redeployment of other mobile dentistry resources to provide support in the area, isn't it a little late, six months later, and should this not have been treated as a priority? And, if you agree with that, will your colleagues get on the phone to the health board and ensure that, with your partnership, this is treated as a priority?

Well, the Cabinet Secretary hears what the Member says. As I said, there are alternative provisions in place, although the intention is to restart the service. I can say, though, that, because of Designed to Smile, the latest dental survey of five-year-olds in 2014-15 shows a 6 per cent reduction in the proportion of children with experience of dental decay in Wales when compared with the previous survey, undertaken in 2011-12. And, over the last eight years, we have seen a 12 per cent reduction in the proportion of children with at least one tooth affected by decay, and that's an example of the success of Designed for Life.