Dental patient charges in Wales will be frozen for the fifth year in a row to help maintain wider access to NHS dentistry, Health Minister Edwina Hart has announced.
Dental patient charges in Wales will be frozen for the fifth year in a row to help maintain wider access to NHS dentistry, Health Minister Edwina Hart announced today (Wednesday 23 February 2011).
The current level of patient charges in Wales has remained the same since April 2006 and is set to stay at the 2006 level for 2011/12:
The charges are:
- Band 1 – Diagnosis, treatment planning and maintenance: £12
- Band 2 – Treatment: £39
- Band 3 – Provision of appliances: £177
- Urgent treatment: £12
Health Minister Edwina Hart said:
“By freezing dental charges in Wales for the fifth year running, we are maintaining access to NHS dentistry for the people of Wales, ensuring charges remain affordable and in doing so helping to tackle oral health inequalities.
“Thanks to the significant extra investment we have made, access to general dental services has improved significantly over recent years. We continue to invest 40 per cent of the overall Welsh budget in our health and social services – which demonstrates our commitment to safeguarding these vitally important frontline services.
“I do, however, appreciate that there may be particular areas where access to dental services is still difficult.
“Areas where access has proved difficult in the past have seen some of the greatest improvements. In the Hywel Dda LHB area for example, there are now over 40,000 more people accessing NHS dental care than in March 2006 and in Powys the figure is almost 10,000.
“In addition to increasing access to dentists, we are also investing in raising awareness of people’s responsibility in taking care of their own oral health as they should for their general health and well-being. Simple steps, such as people brushing their teeth thoroughly with fluoride toothpaste twice a day, can make a significant difference to improve their oral health.”
