7. What action is the Welsh Government taking to improve access to NHS dentistry services? OQ57911

Llywydd, additional investment, contract reform and new COVID-related guidance are amongst the measures being taken this month to increase safe access to NHS dental services.

Thank you, First Minister. I've been contacted—no doubt, many of us here have—by a number of constituents who are struggling to access NHS dentistry services. Certainly, in my constituency, one example was where I was recently contacted by a parent whose children were last seen by a dentist at Easter 2019. They had only been able to be seen by a hygienist since then, as the constituent was insistent on their children being seen in some way by the practice. Another constituent was told that their practice was no longer taking on adult NHS patients, and I know of a local dentist near me where they will not take on new people. However, if you contribute to Denplan, there is suddenly, miraculously lots of capacity.

As I understand it, dentistry services are still in an amber phase of recovery and so patients are still being seen according to clinical need, but I feel that the longer people go without having a regular check-up, the more people's dental health will deteriorate, meaning that there will be more demand for complex treatment hampering the recovery of services. First Minister, what plans does the Welsh Government have to ensure that there is a resumption of regular scheduled check-ups, and how is the Government working with providers to expand the capacity of services, which is clearly needed to tackle the ever-growing waiting list for appointments and treatment? Thank you.

Llywydd, I thank Peter Fox for those supplementary questions. There is no dispute that dentistry has been even more significantly affected by COVID conditions than other parts of the health service, because of the nature of aerosol-generating procedures, as he will know, that are inherent in the way that dentists have to go about their profession. Now, I was able to speak yesterday with the new Chief Dental Officer for Wales, Andrew Dickenson, and to discuss with him exactly some of the points that the Member has raised: how can we create a pathway in which we can see a resumption of NHS dental services at a level that was available prior to the COVID pandemic, and how can we build on that further?

So, as well as the additional money that the Minister for Health and Social Services has made available for dentistry in this financial year, and as well as the contract reform that we discussed on the floor of the Senedd some weeks ago, and I'm pleased to say there are promising indications of the number of dental practices that are signing up for the new contract, I also talked to the new chief dental officer about a change in the way that he believes we should be streaming patients into dentistry. So, the proposal is that every patient going to a dentist would provide a respiratory history in advance of their appointment. For people who have histories of respiratory illnesses, some of the COVID protections that are currently in place will continue to be necessary, but for people who have non-respiratory histories, some of the restrictions on the way that dentists operate because of COVID are capable of being lifted, and lifted safely. And that will mean that dentists will be able to see more patients in a session than they have been able to while they've been operating under the amber conditions that Peter Fox referred to.

So, I wanted at least to give him that assurance that there are very active plans being developed under the leadership of the new chief dental officer to find ways in which safely we can restore NHS dentistry to operating conditions, where it's safe to do so, for patients where it's safe to do so, closer to those obtained before the pandemic began.

And finally, question 8, Heledd Fychan.