The Welsh Government has introduced a new Digital Dental Access Portal to streamline access to NHS dental services, enabling people to register their interest and allowing health boards to allocate routine treatment appointments more efficiently.
The platform, managed by Digital Health and Care Wales (DHCW), is designed to provide a comprehensive overview of the demand for NHS dental services, helping to reduce the need for individuals to contact multiple dental surgeries in search of an NHS dentist.
To use the portal, individuals must be over 16 years old, have not received routine dental care on the NHS in the past four years, and either live in Wales for more than six months a year or be registered with a Welsh GP.
Health Secretary Jeremy Miles acknowledged the ongoing challenges in accessing NHS dentistry and expressed the importance of the new system. “Access to NHS dentistry is not where we or the public want it to be,” he said. “This new service will assist those who haven’t seen a dentist for a while in securing routine NHS appointments.”
Since its trial launch in Powys, thousands of people have already been added to the waiting list, with NHS dentists allocated as appointments become available. Miles further emphasized that the centralized information will offer significant benefits to health boards by providing a clear picture of local demand, enabling them to manage the distribution of patients to dental practices as capacity permits.
The portal aims to improve accessibility, reduce waiting times, and ensure a more effective allocation of resources in Wales’ dental care system.
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