Natasha Asghar MS has visited the Kensington Court Dental Clinic to meet with staff and patients to discuss the work of the dental clinic and the future of dentistry in Newport and across the rest of Wales.
The Clinic covers child dental health and oral surgery, providing a vital service for the area, specifically for children and young people with ADHD and autism who cannot receive treatment elsewhere.
Natasha, who represents Newport and Islwyn in the Welsh Parliament, met with Mark Robotham, partner at the Clinic and Heather Larcombe-Watkins, the Clinic’s Manager, to listen to their concerns about the steady erosion of their NHS patients.
While the Clinic can treat up to 2,000 children, the new Welsh government-led dental contract has capped this number to just 720 patients.
With long waiting times of over two years – 18 months for an assessment by the Health Board and 10-12 months backlogs – the Clinic is ready to treat more children and tackle the waiting list but cannot because the Health Board is unable to afford it.
Natasha Asghar MS, who is also the Welsh Conservative Shadow Minister for Health and Social Care, said:
“I’m really at a loss as to why an excellent dental clinic, which has the capacity to treat more and has the trust of both patients and their parents, is not being used to its full potential in order to bring down long dental waiting lists.
“If the Welsh Government is serious about both child dental health and tackling spiralling waiting lists, they need to act fast and use clinics like Kensington Court.
“I have therefore written to the Cabinet Minister for Health and Care, calling on the Welsh Government to urgently address this situation.”
