10:12am Saturday 12th April 2008
Two new dental practises offering six new dentists and 14,000 NHS places for long-suffering Pembrokeshire patients have been officially opened by Health Minister Edwina Hart.
"It's important to recognise that people do want an NHS dentist, they dont want to go private," said the minister as she opened the Haverfordwest practise.
"I think it's their right as tax payers to be able to access an NHS dentist."
But Nick Ainger, MP for Carmarthen West and South Pembrokeshire, was quick to point out that access was still a problem for many of his constituents.
"We need a facility like this in the south of the county," said Mr Ainger.
"There's still a large unmet demand, and what I want to see is one or two of these facilities in places like Pembroke, Tenby or Narberth."
My Smile, in Milford Haven, and the Quay Street Dental practise, in Haverfordwest, have been taking patients since November 2007 and both are well on their way to filling their quotas of 4,800 and 9,600 NHS places respectively.
Quay Street practise manager, Renee Bull, said: "We're very busy at the moment because a lot of people around here have been waiting for over two years for an NHS dentist."
The health minister attributed the current shortage of NHS places to problems in attracting staff to Pembrokeshire. She explained that she has always had difficulties understanding the difficulty of bringing dentists to such a beautiful area, but the local health board have been working hard to rectify the situation.
But Preseli MP, Stephen Crabb, thinks the problem could be solved using the local workforce.
"I'd like to see more encouragement for home grown dentists," he said.
"This is good news for the county and a step in the right direction but there's still a large task ahead."
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