The British Dental Association Cymru Wales has slammed continued spin over the Welsh Government’s reform plans for NHS dentistry, and what they refer to as the ‘ceaseless tide of disingenuous claims’ over funding and patient numbers.

In an open letter to the Cabinet Secretary for Health and Social Services Jeremy Miles, the BDA has called for honesty, saying claims of ‘significant investment’ actually translate into cuts in Government spending; while calling out ministerial doublespeak over 400,000 ‘more’ treatments when patient numbers remain down by 30% on pre-pandemic norms.

Dentist leaders have also challenged the Welsh Government to rule out further increases to patient charges. 2024 saw the largest increase to charges in NHS history.

The BDA dubbed the hikes as ‘stealth’ cuts that do not put a penny of extra investment into the service. Increases are typically announced In March and take effect from April 1.

The exchange follows a letter to dentists sent from Jeremy Miles which blamed the BDA for delays to pay uplifts and for refusing to continue with negotiations.

The professional body accused the Minister of a spectacular display of bad faith over this message, stressing that the Welsh Government were the sole authors of delay, given their unprecedented efforts to tie pay increases to signing up to changes that will likely underpin its untested plans for reform. This includes transferring the data for patients on waiting lists to new systems.

Following the Welsh Government’s claims that a 6% increase of contract value for dentists was all it could afford, it awarded an 11% uplift to Welsh GPs’ contracts in recognition of their high running costs.

The BDA has stressed that no meaningful effort has been made to insulate dental practices from the huge surge in costs generated by the UK Government’s Autumn Budget.