Part of 1. Questions to the First Minister – in the Senedd at 1:50 pm on 22 March 2022.
There are a series of actions that the Welsh Government will be taking. I listened to the first question by the leader of the opposition. The teacher that he identified living in Bangor will be able to take advantage, I hope, of the new centre that will be opening in Bangor—a major new dental centre that will provide a new level of NHS dental provision to people in the north-west of Wales. We will continue to provide more money for dentistry next year—a further £2 million recurring provided by the health Minister to bolster dental provision. And we will, as I said to the Member, press ahead with the liberalisation of the profession. We need a different cadre of professionals in dentistry, able to do the routine work that you do not need a fully qualified dentist to undertake. We have seen in GP services a significant liberalisation of the profession. If you go to a GP surgery now, you are very likely to see the practice pharmacist, the practice physiotherapist, the practice nurse. There is a range of professionals who contribute to the team under the oversight of the general practitioner. We need the same approach in dentistry. We need the skills and abilities of our highly trained dentists to be devoted to doing the things that only a dentist can do, and then, alongside them, to have a wider spread of other allied professionals able to undertake aspects of dental care that don't need a fully qualified dentist, carried out under their supervision. In that way, we will be able to increase the capacity of NHS dentistry and make the best use of the most expensive and most highly qualified staff that we have in that field.