National Assembly for Wales

The number of dental practices providing NHS care in calendar years 2015 to 17 is shown in the table below:

Source: NHS General Dental Services Quality Assurance Self-Assessment (QAS) Reports 2015-2017: Public Health Wales.

Welsh Government is encouraging health boards to use the flexibility within the current contract to address local recruitment and retention difficulties. This includes the contract value and associated activity measures, incentivising recruitment in areas where it has been difficult to attract dentists, and looking at making the best use of the whole dental team through improved skill mix.

Health boards have the ability to commission and target services where there is need. The dental contract allows flexibility to commission services at an appropriate value to reflect local circumstances, including the cost of service provision, potential availability, and the level of need/demand. We are starting to explore innovative models to provide care for small populations in rural and remote areas by working with existing practices and health boards to consider ‘hub and spoke’ arrangements. Some health boards have also secured salaried general practice models managed through the Community Dental Service.

It is always disappointing when a dentist decides to reduce or end their NHS commitment. It is important to highlight that when this happens the funding for the lost provision remains with the health board so it can replace the level of dental services.

The number of dentists with NHS activity continues to rise in line with an increasing population in Wales as shown by the number of dentists per 10,000 population, which has remained constant for the last five years.