North Wales MS Mark Isherwood has this today called on the First Minister to respond to this week’s statement by the British Association of Private Dentistry in Wales that “patients are suffering needlessly” and that “many practices will not survive” because the Welsh Government is not allowing them to deliver routine procedures safely amid the Covid-19 pandemic.
Raising the matter in the virtual Plenary meeting of the Welsh Parliament, Mr Isherwood referred to the fact that patients in England can now receive dental treatment and said that private dental surgeons in Wales have warned this week of the consequences of not permitting them to follow suit.
He said:
“How do you respond to yesterday’s statement by the British Association of Private Dentistry (Wales), which has grown from 0 to 400 in under a week, that many patients are suffering needlessly, and that “Urgent action to deliver routine dentistry under interim Standard Operating Procedures and personal protective equipment is required to allow the Welsh population the same care as in England but more importantly around the world” - and that many dental practices will otherwise not survive?”
The First Minister replied: “I respond to the group by referring them to the advice of the Chief Dental Officer for Wales, who is the person best equipped - a good deal better equipped than the Member will be - to provide people with expert advice in the dental field, and the continuing discussions that she will have with the profession in Wales. That's how decisions should be made, by proper professional discussion and professional leadership, and I refer them to the leader of their profession here in Wales.”
The Chair of the Steering Group for the British Association of Private Dentistry (Wales), who runs the largest independent dental practice in North Wales and is also the past Dean of the Faculty of General Dental Practice UK, told Mr Isherwood that although dental practices are now open for full routine services in England, the “Welsh Government is frustrating their opening in Wales in a conflated erroneous policy” and that politicians must recognise the need “to push back on some of the most ludicrous dental policies I have seen”.
Speaking following the meeting, Mr Isherwood, who last week also challenged the Health Minister over the reopening of dental practices in Wales added:
“The First Minister dismissed issues about his handling of the easing of lockdown raised by Opposition Members, including myself, and insisted that his approach commands the support of the people of Wales, a claim echoed by Labour Members. I had one minute to raise two related issues, quoting external bodies, with no comeback.”