Part of 1. Questions to the First Minister – in the Senedd at 2:08 pm on 28 March 2023.
Well, Llywydd, we're always willing to look at ideas that come forward from practitioners. The fact of the matter is that dentistry, uniquely of primary care professions, is paid for the work before they do it, not after it. At the end of the year, there always has been, under the previous contract as well as the current contract, a reconciliation, when you look to see what a practice has actually been able to achieve. If it has not been able to fulfil the terms of its contract, nobody can expect public money to be offered to somebody for a service that hasn't been provided.
Now, we have always had a pragmatic approach to that end-of-year reconciliation, and I know, from my discussions with the chief dental officer last night, that that is exactly the way in which it is being approached this year as well, and particularly because, with a new contract, some of the metrics that are being used are inevitably being used for the first time and need to be tested in practice. The system is not designed at all to penalise practices where there is a reasonable accommodation that can be reached with them. If there are other and better ideas as to how that can be navigated, then of course the system and the people who work in it will be very willing to think those through.