Dental Charges To Increase in Wales
Dental charges are set to increase in Wales for the first time since 2006, it has been confirmed.
Lesley Griffiths, Minister for Health, confirmed that there would be a 2 percent increase for band 1 and band 2 treatments; band 1 fees will increase by 40 pence to £12.40 and band 2 treatments will increase by £1.20 to £40.20; there will be no fee increase for band 3 treatments, which will remain at £177.00.
The fee increase represents the first rise since 2006; it will come into effect from the 1st September and the money raised will be reinvested into dental services.
Lesley Griffiths said that the government had managed to freeze dental charges for the last five years, but this was no longer possible and the extra money raised by the fee increase will be used to improve local dental services across the country.
Charges in Wales are still considerably lower than fees in England and the fee increase is well below the rate of inflation; in England, charges have increased by 11 percent since 2006.
Lesley Griffiths stressed that the government is committed to improving standards of oral health across Wales; however, leader of the Welsh Liberal Democrats, Kirsty Williams, said that oral health has been overlooked by Labour for many years and this has resulted in problems with access to dental care and poor standards of oral health, particularly among children.
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