What steps is the Welsh Government taking to ensure timely and local access to emergency dental services for all residents in north Wales?
General dental practitioners are obliged to provide access to urgent treatment for their regular patients within normal surgery hours. Access to urgent treatment outside surgery hours or for people who do not have a regular NHS dentist is covered by the emergency dental service, which is available by calling 111.
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. The overwhelming majority of practices have elected to operate under this arrangement, resulting in more than 19,900 new patients gaining access to urgent treatment in North Wales since April 2023.
Betsi Cadwaladr University Health Board liaises with 111 and allocates appointments to people who contact it via this route. It also provides emergency care through its own dental helpline – 22 dental practices across North Wales provide a total of 220 urgent appointments to the dental helpline a week, providing urgent care for more than 950 people a month.
Urgent access sessions are available every day at various practices. In September 2024, 863 people were offered an urgent access appointment and a further 164 were seen by the health board’s emergency dental service.