Part of 1. Questions to the First Minister – in the Senedd at 2:26 pm on 22 March 2022.
First Minister, earlier on today, in response to the leader of the opposition, you said that the new dental contract has been carefully negotiated, but like others, I've been contacted by local dentists in my constituency who are frustrated with changes to this contract and have warned that these changes could have a detrimental impact on the delivery of services in the Hywel Dda University Health Board area. Now, in a nutshell, the local health board is proposing to reduce practices' contract values to 25 per cent of the agreed existing levels, as well as targeting practices with additional targets and measures, and, of course, these changes will now come into force from 1 April. I listened very, very carefully to your earlier answers, but it's clear from the concerns I've received that dentists are worried about these changes that could have a negative impact on the delivery of services in Pembrokeshire. So, First Minister, what steps will you now take to alleviate these immediate concerns so that dentists in my constituency can provide much needed dental services?