Part of the debate – in the Senedd at 5:11 pm on 14 March 2023.
I am guilty as charged; I am one of those who've used the phrase 'two-tier system', and let me tell you why, because I think it's really important. I do acknowledge that NICE guidelines have changed—I think we all do; we all hear that. I know there needs to be a skill mix in dentistry, and I think that's accepted. There have always been dental charges for adults in the past. I remember that a while ago. I know there has been a private health system in dentistry, just as there is in any health system. But what I don't understand is how that matches with what I am, and it seems others are, hearing day after day, time after time. And I think, Minister, part of that is that there just seems to be a resistance to seeing the reality. The reality is what we're hearing: it's people going to dentists, like the one that John Griffiths said, and them saying, 'I'm sorry, you have to de-register and then register again, in a queue'; the reality that families are told, 'I'm really sorry, but we're now a private healthcare practice.' I really think that one of the things that would be really valuable is that we look at how we can bring together everything across the board and not have that two-tier system. Thank you. Diolch yn fawr iawn.