Labour Assembly Government Statistics Gap Needs Filling

12.00.00am UTC (GMT +0000) Tue 10th Oct 2006

Research carried out by Jenny Randerson AM, Health Spokesperson for the Welsh Liberal Democrats has revealed that the government doesn't know how many dentists have abandoned the new NHS dental contract.

The new contract was introduced at the beginning of April 2006 and there are no new statistics available after that date.

Jenny said, "In Business if you introduced a new form of contract for your employees you would be very keen to gather information on whether the change was successful. You would certainly want to know if people were leaving!

"Between October 2005 and March 2006, 454 principal dentists left the NHS compared with only 65 joining, according to research initiated by the Welsh Liberal Democrats in the Assembly.[1]

"Losing one dentist is unfortunate, losing two is careless, losing 454 is negligent and a clear sign that the Labour Assembly Government has got it wrong with the new contracts. If there is a shortage of dentists then vital preventative work is put on the back burner.

"These gaps in the statistics need filling if we are to learn from any mistakes made."