Dental Provision in Mid and West Wales

Part of 1. Questions to the First Minister – in the Senedd at 2:10 pm on 28 March 2023.

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Photo of Mark Drakeford Mark Drakeford Labour 2:10, 28 March 2023

The Minister set out in her oral statement here on the floor of the Senedd practical action that is being taken to increase the provision of NHS dentistry for children, including the pilot that the Minister set out in secondary schools—a pilot being carried out in north Wales in the first instance, and we hope, if it is successful, to be able to do more of that elsewhere. In Powys, to which Jane Dodds referred directly, I think I was able to say in answering a question last week that the health board has been successful in recruiting a paediatric specialist dentist who can carry out more of the specialist treatment that is necessary without children needing to leave the county, and an additional dental therapist focusing exclusively on children. I understand that the figure of 800 to which Jane Dodds referred has already been reduced by more than 100 as a result of that additional resource that the health board has, and, when I spoke with the chief executive of Powys health board before questions last week, she said to me that she felt that the health board had been really successful in recruiting new staff in the dental profession, of a variety of contributions that they could make, to come to be able to make sure that adults, but children as well, are able to receive the sort of service that we would wish to see in that part of Wales.