Primary Care Personal Dental Services - NHS Wales

The Hywel Dda University Health Board (HDUHB) provides a full range of primary, community, mental health and acute hospital services across the three counties of Hywel Dda (Carmarthenshire, Ceredigion and Pembrokeshire).

Mainly rural in character, Hywel Dda covers an area of approximately 2,213 square miles (5,728 square kilometres) and a total resident population of approximately 384,000.

It is anticipated that by 2026 the population will increase to 399,000.

Hywel Dda hosts numerous popular tourist destinations particularly along its coastline, which can significantly increase the resident population during the summer months.

Hywel Dda has towns situated in each county, the main centres being Carmarthen, Llanelli, Aberystwyth, Cardigan, Haverfordwest and Fishguard.

The Health Board is responsible for the commissioning of NHS Primary Care Dental Services across Hywel Dda and the NHS Primary Care Dental Services are complemented by a Hywel Dda Community Dental Service and Specialist Dental Services provided by the Abertawe Bro Morgannwg University Health Board.

The current patient access levels to NHS dental services within the Health Board area stands at 46% compared with an average access level of 56% across Wales as a whole.

HDUHB is therefore seeking to commission the provision of further additional dental services aimed at improving access levels across the region, in particular in those areas identified with low access rates and/or high oral health needs.

The Health Board is interested in receiving Expressions of Interest from new or existing Providers wishing to either increase service levels at an existing practice or establish services at a new practice.

The objectives of this Dental Procurement scheme are: • To introduce additional capacity targeted towards increasing the proportion of the population able to access NHS Dental Services on a regular basis • To improve the accessibility to primary care dental services for patients seeking an NHS dentist • To ensure that provision should be safe, effective, of high quality and available equitably to the whole population.

In order to deliver these objectives HDUHB wishes to procure additional dental services targeted at those areas of Hywel Dda identified with existing low levels of access to dental services.

In total the Health Board expects to commission in the region of an additional 19,000 UDA.