How is the Welsh Government making NHS dental care more accessible for new patients?
My officials are in negotiations with the British Dental Association with the aim of developing a new contract that is fairer for both patients and dentists. Concluding this process will be key in attracting dentists to work in the NHS and thereby increase availability.
An all-Wales digital Dental Access Portal has been developed, which enables allowing people to register for NHS dental care. The system will provide health boards with a clear understanding of need in their area and enable them to manage the allocation of people to dental practices as capacity allows. It will remove the need for the public to have to contact multiple practices, providing an equitable and fairer system of access to all.
Powys Teaching Health Board was chosen as the pilot site. Testing and development with data already held by the health board took place throughout August and the public-facing part of the system went live on 19 September, with full implementation across Wales scheduled for later this year.
Since April 2022, practices in Wales have been offered the opportunity to opt-in to a variation of their UDA contract, which encourages the provision of care on a risk and needs basis and includes a requirement to see a set number of new patients, dependent on the practice’s NHS contract value.
For the last two years, the overwhelming majority of practices have elected to operate under this arrangement and this has resulted in more than 384,000 new patients gaining access to an NHS dentist across Wales and receiving a full course of treatment. A further 118,000 new patients have received urgent care since April 2023.
Workforce is a key part of improving access to NHS dental care and we are looking to establish innovative opportunities to upskill and improve career pathways in dentistry to make working in Wales more attractive. Health Education and Improvement Wales is focusing on recruitment and retention of the dental workforce in Wales and has launched a scheme to incentivise dental trainees in dental practices across rural Wales. Graduates opting to undertake their training in rural areas can benefit from the Welsh Enhanced Recruitment Offer (WERO) which offers an additional £7,000, plus additional educational and wellbeing support.