Part of 2. Questions to the Minister for Health and Social Services – in the Senedd at 2:29 pm on 13 July 2022.
Of course, this isn't new. Before the pandemic, constituents were contacting me about the lack of NHS dentists in Arfon. As one stated in 2019,
'Both my daughter and myself have been without a dentist now for well over a year. Please is there anything you can do to resolve this problem regarding the lack of NHS dentists in Bangor and further afield?'
I wrote to you last August on behalf of a constituent who stated,
'I'm writing to draw your attention to the drastic lack of NHS dentistry in north-west Wales. Over the last few years, I've been a member of four different dental practices, all in or around my home in the city of Bangor. All four have either closed or stopped treating NHS patients.'
In your reply, you stated that
'Betsi Cadwaladr University Health Board are well advanced in their plans to establish a new north Wales dental academy in Bangor, which will provide an opportunity for the health board to significantly increase dental provision, improving access to NHS dental services', which you referred to in your initial reply, and that you were making good progress with the recovery of dental services. But half a year on, the leader of the opposition raised with the First Minister the case of a teacher in Bangor, who found it impossible to find a new NHS dentist—