Part of 2. Questions to the Minister for Health and Social Services – in the Senedd at 2:50 pm on 15 June 2022.
Thanks, Russell. I would accept that there is currently a capacity issue, and that's why I'm spending quite a lot of my time now trying to address this very issue. We are making steady progress with the recovery of dental services. And whilst I accept that it wasn't fantastic before the pandemic, the pandemic has certainly made things considerably worse, and we're still a long way from being 100 per cent of what we were doing pre pandemic. So, those are restrictions that are beyond a politician's control. And we've got to understand that we have to ensure that people are safe when they are having that treatment.
Now, 89 per cent of the contract value will be operating under that new dental reform principle, and what will happen as a result of that, for example in Powys, is that we will see access for around 5,000 new people to be able to come onto the NHS to be able to see an NHS dentist. I think one of the differences is that if you look at what the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence proposes in this space—and what we've all been conditioned to believe over the years is that you've got to go for a check-up every six months, but NICE is no longer saying that; it's not me—NICE is saying that, actually, it depends on how healthy your teeth are. So, you shouldn't necessarily need to go for a check-up every six months. Now, it's not me, as I say; this is clinical experts saying that, actually, we've spent a lot of money and a lot of time on sending people for a check-up who didn't necessarily need it, and people who did need to get a check-up who couldn't get a check-up at all because they couldn't get access are left out completely. And that's one of the reasons why we've gone for the reform of the contract as we have.