Questions Without Notice from Party Spokespeople

Part of 2. Questions to the Minister for Health and Social Services – in the Senedd at 3:14 pm on 13 March 2019.

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Photo of Gareth Bennett Gareth Bennett UKIP 3:14, 13 March 2019

Yes, that's encouraging. Now, if I can go back to the UDA issue, obviously, this is all going to hopefully come out in the autumn statement, but one issue with the clawback is that the money that is taken back from the dental practices is not ring-fenced and so is not necessarily going to be reinvested in the Welsh dental service. As we know from matters that are continuously debated in this Chamber, the national health service in Wales are short of money in many areas, so the problem is that much of this money that's clawed back is used to plug funding gaps in other areas of the Welsh NHS system. So, we do have this rather perverse situation at the moment, which the BDA have identified, where there are large waiting lists and patients having to travel many miles for check-ups, but, at the same time, money is being taken out of the dentistry system and put into other areas of the NHS. So, hopefully, that will form part of your thinking with this overhaul of the contracts.