NHS in Wales and England to collaborate on dental care

Dental Tribune International

Tue. 22. October 2024

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LONDON, England: Dental care across the UK is now in a critical state. Inadequate public funding, personnel shortages and unavailability of appointments are all contributing towards a genuine domestic health crisis. In an attempt to reduce ever-increasing waiting times for National Health Service (NHS) dental appointments, the Welsh and English governments have devised a collaborative scheme designed to allow patients in both countries access to available capacity wherever it may exist.

A growing number of dentists in the UK are leaving publicly funded practices either to continue practising privately or to leave the profession altogether, and obtaining dental appointments has become a struggle for the ordinary person as access to NHS services steadily diminishes. To counteract this, in recent months, the governments of both Wales and England have unveiled ambitious plans to create a wealth of NHS appointments and to offer financial incentives to encourage dentists to practise in areas with little NHS coverage at present. The results of these measures are still pending.

The latest political instrument aimed at curbing the NHS dental crisis is a joint agreement between the Welsh and English governments to allow people from both countries to travel across the border to access appointments and procedures wherever the capacity exists. At a press conference, Secretary of State for Wales Jo Stevens stated: “We can work together cross border to deliver earlier surgical operations for people on waiting lists.”

Welsh NHS dentistry will also be used as an example of how to run the service in England, despite previous warnings from the British Dental Association that the service could disappear in Wales. Speaking on this topic, Stevens maintained: “UK government will take inspiration from Wales on dentistry, where reforms have already unlocked almost 400,000 appointments in the last two years.”

Wales is held up as a model for public health dentistry; however, a BBC article published last week demonstrated that the domestic situation there is as problematic as in England and stated that some local dentists consider the idealism misplaced. As the political wrangling continues over the NHS dental crisis in the UK, the health of ordinary people remains hanging in the balance.