NHS Dentists

Part of 2. Questions to the Minister for Health and Social Services – in the Senedd at 3:00 pm on 29 September 2021.

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Photo of Baroness Mair Eluned Morgan Baroness Mair Eluned Morgan Labour 3:00, 29 September 2021

Thanks very much, Jane, and thank you for the championing of the cause on dentistry that you're undertaking at the moment. I'm all for innovation, particularly at the time that we're in at the moment. I'm really pleased to see the innovation that's happening in Machynlleth. I guess the issue with mobile suites is not the facilities themselves, but who we get to do the work inside them. So, it's much easier to get a mobile suite developed than it is actually to train the people to staff them, and that's why I'm really pleased that we are working with HEIW to develop the workforce and to make sure that we're being a bit more creative in terms of the way we use the workforce, so it's not just all about dentists—it's got to be about other people working very much at the top of their licence, and encouraging them to work to the top of their licence. I'm really pleased that, for example, in Bangor we've got the all-Wales faculty of dental care professionals, which is really looking at what we can do in terms of dental nurses, dental technicians, dental therapists, dental hygienists, getting them to do perhaps some of the routine work of checking, or whatever, and leaving dentists then to do the more urgent cases.