AFC0009

Written evidence submitted by Major Robert Thompson.

On retirement from the Regular Army and settling in West Wales, I and my family found it impossible to find a local NHS dentist.  No individual dentist is even excepting patients on to a waiting list but the local NHS Health Board; Hywel Dda University Health Board (HDUHB), maintains a centralised waiting list in South Ceredigion.  The waiting time for patients to be placed with a dentist is seemingly many years. Seeing that HDUHB is a signatory to the Armed Forces Covenant, I wrote to them last year to explain my position.  The response was that former Armed Forces personnel were in no different position to members of the public and that there was extreme pressure on dental services locally.  This makes me wonder what the point of the AF Covenant is when it comes to being disadvantaged in terms of health care due to service life.  Signing up to the AF Covenant looks good on public bodies websites etc. but in practice means nothing at all.

10th January 2025