Patients in Wales Struggle to Access NHS Dental Care Despite Long Waiting Lists and Shortage of Practitioners

Georgia Wellings, 22, has been unable to find an NHS dentist in south Wales for five years, despite trying various locations including Barry, Swansea, Penarth, and Bristol.

Before moving to Cardiff for university, she was registered with an NHS dentist in Exeter, but since the start of the Covid pandemic, she has been told they no longer offer NHS appointments.

She has made the 200-mile round trip to Exeter twice since January, but now has no other option but to go private, which she finds "ridiculous".

Sarah Dickinson, 56, from Caernarfon, also tried and failed to get on an NHS waiting list after moving from Halifax, Yorkshire.

She described her own teeth as "awful", with two being broken, and said she cannot afford private dentist care and cannot access NHS services.

Mrs.

Dickinson and her husband have to live off about £900 a month after she was forced to retire early because of ill health and cannot risk going private as they need their savings to last 12 years.

Heather Manson, 28, from Cardiff, said she and her boyfriend rang 10 NHS practices with no success.

She moved to Cardiff in 2019 and ended up travelling back to her home city of Leeds to see an NHS dentist.

The Welsh government has increased funding for dentistry, but the situation remains dire, with 11 out of 22 local authorities in Wales having 100% of dentistry practices contacted unable to accept new patients.

Patients are forced to travel long distances, with some being denied appointments despite having broken teeth.

The lack of access to NHS dental care in Wales is a cause for concern, with patients facing a range of barriers, including long waiting lists and a shortage of practitioners.

The situation is made even more challenging by the ongoing Covid-19 pandemic, which has led to the closure of some dental practices and restrictions on patient numbers.

In response to the issue, the A woman named Ms Manson, who had not been to the dentist in years, initially attempted to access NHS treatment in north Wales.

However, she was unable to secure an appointment and ended up going private.

Fortunately, she was able to get an NHS appointment before having to pay for private health care, and her experience has been "smooth sailing." Ms Manson believes that access to dental care should be easy and available to everyone.

Betsi Cadwaladr health board's assistant dental services director, Peter Greensmith, expressed regret for the difficulties Ms Dickinson experienced and encouraged her to contact the patient advice and liaison service to have her concerns properly investigated.

The Welsh government also stated that nearly 174,000 patients who were previously unable to get a dental appointment received one last year.

In response to the issue, Health Education and Improvement Wales (HEIW) has launched a new local recruitment initiative called WERO (Welsh Enhanced Recruitment Offer for Dentistry).

This initiative offers an enhanced support package for trainees who complete dental foundation training in specific rural dental practices in west, north, and central Wales.

The aim of the program is to encourage more dentists to work in these areas, improving access to dental care for the local population.