Dental crisis: three out of five adults forced to go private in Monmouthshire

12.00.00am GMT Wed 11th Jan 2006

Research by the Welsh Liberal Democrats show that only 42 per cent of adults in the county have access to NHS dentistry.

"These are frankly shocking figures", says local area Assembly Member, Michael German, "Over the last ten years the number of people registered with an NHS dentist in Wales has dropped by over 200,000 people, with just 47.8% of the population registered with a Dentist."

The leader of the Welsh Liberal Democrats in the National Assembly added, "We are steadily seeing the erosion of NHS dentistry in Wales where now we see that in some areas, such as Monmouthshire, the majority of the adult population are forced to get their treatment privately from the independent sector."

In 2004 a Which? Report on Dentistry in Wales found that 20% of people who hadn't been to a dentist in the last year said it was because they couldn't find a Dentist with which to register.

Recently there has been mounting concern in Wales regarding the effect new contracts on Dentists will have on NHS provision; "We are seeing NHS dentistry under attack from a number of sources. The key to NHS provision is all down to investment - and the Labour Assembly Government has ultimate responsibility."

Monmouthshire County Councillor, Phil Hobson, who lives in Chepstow, is amongst those who do not have an NHS dentist. "Several years ago I tried in vain to get registered. Since then I have gone private. I received excellent care - but it does cost. I know many people in the same position as myself, particularly people who have moved into the area in the last few years. This is a growing problem and the Assembly Government really does have to get down to some hard work to sort out these problems."

NOTES:

Welsh Liberal Democrats published an action plan to tackle the dental crisis in Wales before Christmas. The full plan - which includes a range of long and short-term measures - can be downloaded from:

http://www.welshlibdems.org.uk/policy_e_main.asp