Skip to main contentAccess keys help

[an error occurred while processing this directive]
BBC News
Launch consoleBBC News in video and audio
News image
Last Updated: Tuesday, 24 April 2007, 19:13 GMT 20:13 UK
Candidates in the dentist's chair
Group shot of the Ynys Mon candidates with John Morgans
Wales 60's John Morgans (centre) with the candidates in Llangefni
The BBC Wales assembly election bus is on the road bringing politicians to the people, and people to the politicians.

The bus is spending the time up to polling day on 3 May touring Wales.

In Llangefni, Ynys Mon candidates met former financial consultant John Morgans, 64, one of the Wales 60, a voters' group drawn up by the BBC.

He asked them about the lack of NHS dentists. As a Citizens' Advice Bureau volunteer, he tells people they need to travel off Anglesey to find a dentist.

Click on the links below for the candidates' responses, along with some of his questions - and for Mr Morgans' verdict on it all.

MANDI ABRAHAMS, LIBERAL DEMOCRAT

Mandi Abrahams
Mandi Abrahams, Liberal Democrat

It's a disgrace that people don't have direct access to NHS dentistry. It should be on a par with access to your GP and your local hospital.

The way that the dentist contract was set up in the last couple of years has led to any dentists who are still practising within the NHS leaving, and what we need to be doing is creating more incentives for people to train to be dentists.

We need to be looking to pull back people who've gone away, to train in dentistry, to come back to their local areas to practise and to increase the number of places, to look very carefully at the capitation levels so that there are enough dentists in each area of the population.

JONATHAN AUSTIN, LABOUR

Jonathan Austin
Jonathan Austin, Labour

It has been a matter of concern for people on Ynys Mon, on the island of Anglesey. The local health board have announced, as I'm sure you're aware, that they are developing several "chairs" as they call them, new dentists on the island.

It's been a while coming and I know that's been a disappointment to people on the island and people have been worried about signing up with NHS dentists, but the provision is being made and people aren't going to have to travel anything like as far as they have been travelling over the recent period.

JM: I've heard all that before, but they never come.

JA: This isn't me saying it as a political party candidate. The local health board have been disappointed at the fact that it's been used as political football in the last few months, I'm sure you must know. I'm holding the press release that they put out in March and making those announcements about new NHS dentists, the forms are available online and in the local paper as of the end of March.

JM: I'll believe it when I see it. I've heard it all before.

JA: I think you are going to see it.

IEUAN WYN JONES, PLAID CYMRU

Ieuan Wyn Jones
Ieuan Wyn Jones, Plaid Cymru

Frankly, the truth is that Anglesey is in the most difficult position of any county in Wales because there are virtually no dentists that will take NHS patients.

This is an issue that has been raised with me in my surgeries regularly over the last four years and essentially it is an issue about the dentists' contract because even those dentists who want to stay true to the NHS are now leaving and are going private and they are asking people to sign long-term contracts for private provision.

And I think the next assembly government, it's not a case about getting more dentists, it's about changing the contract. We have to make the contract more attractive to dentists so that they will reopen their books to NHS patients.

JM: That's what I like to hear. I hope it will happen. And if you're part of the new government, will you promise me you will do what you can?

IWJ: Yes, we will, and because this is one of the big issues that people raise with me on the doorsteps in Anglesey.

JAMES ROACH, CONSERVATIVE

James Roach
James Roach, Conservative

I've been the only candidate running an active campaign on this issue. I've put petitions across and gained over 2,000 signatures.

The overwhelming message from the people of Anglesey is they want more NHS dentists. Basic dental care is a right, it's not a privilege. Everywhere else in Wales is able to access NHS dentists. We've got people who have to travel off the island just to have their teeth checked.

One thing we're pushing for is free dental care for the over-75s, young adults and local income families and free check-ups for all. And we need to get free dental care locally. It's what people expect. It's what they pay their money for.

Like I said, it should be a right, not a privilege. That's what we're aiming for.

JM: That's what I like to hear. Now let's see if we can get some action on it.

JR: It's top of my campaign. It's the main issue in my campaign at the moment. It's top of my list and as a party we're fully committed to solving the NHS dental crisis in Wales.

PETER ROGERS, INDEPENDENT

Peter Rogers, independent
Peter Rogers, independent

I am receiving this daily on the doorstep, the problems with the national health and dentistry.

I would be saying to John that I've fully taken this on board and this will be a major concern of mine if I am going to the assembly. I think that what I've got to do is to raise it with whoever is the health minister to make them aware.

We all know how desperate it is if you've got something wrong with your teeth.

I've got a national health dentist, but I go across to Clwyd. I've had that for many years, but it's not acceptable that we've let it run down to this extent.

FRANK WYKES, UK INDEPENDENCE PARTY

Frank Wykes
Frank Wykes, UKIP
I think it's a disgrace. Now we know that the assembly is now running the NHS in Wales. We know there's a shortage of dentists across the country but it's more acute here in north Wales.

Now there must be something wrong with the assembly that it can't attract enough dentists. The problem with dentistry going back to the time of the NHS in 1948 is that dentists, unlike doctors, were never fully integrated into the NHS.

And even now, if you get a dentist to come here to do NHS practice, he'd probably want to do 90% private practice.

If the assembly was abolished, we'd have a better relationship with the dentists and attract more. I don't think the assembly is attracting the dentists.

JM: They've got the same problem in England.

FW: Not as acute in England as in Wales.

WALES 60 MEMBER JOHN MORGANS' VERDICT

John Morgan, Wales 60 voters' panel member
John Morgan, Wales 60 voters' panel member
They are full of promises. I'll be interested to see what they've got to say, whichever one is elected, when they get to the Senedd.

Will they be prepared to stand up at their lectern and say we need NHS dentists not just in Ynys Mon but the whole of north-west Wales?

They all seemed to make lots of promises. They all seemed to understand the problem.

Let's see the colour of their money, see if they actually do anything.


RELATED INTERNET LINKS
The BBC is not responsible for the content of external internet sites



FEATURES, VIEWS, ANALYSIS
Has China's housing bubble burst?
How the world's oldest clove tree defied an empire
Why Royal Ballet principal Sergei Polunin quit

PRODUCTS & SERVICES

AmericasAfricaEuropeMiddle EastSouth AsiaAsia Pacific