The National Health Service (General Dental Services) and (Dental Charges) (Amendment) (Wales) Regulations 2003

Explanatory Note

(This note is not part of the Regulations)

These Regulations further amend the National Health Service (General Dental Services) Regulations 1992 (S.I. 1992/661) (“the 1992 Regulations”) and the National Health Service (Dental Charges) Regulations 1989 (S.I. 1989/394) (“the 1989 Regulations”).

The 1992 Regulations regulate the terms on which general dental services are provided under the National Health Service Act 1977. The 1989 Regulations contain provisions as to the charges made for general dental services.

Regulation 2 amends regulation 9 of the 1992 Regulations which specifies the age upon which a Health Authority must remove a dentist from its dental list on the grounds that the dentist has attained the age of 65 years. The amendment increases the age specified to 70 years.

Regulation 3 amends Schedule 2 to the 1992 Regulations, which sets out the terms of service that apply to dentists by substituting a new paragraph 17 to that Schedule. The new paragraph enables a greater range of occasional treatments to be provided under the general dental services by removing the distinction between the treatment available to patients who are not registered and those occasional patients registered with a dentist elsewhere. It also provides that where a dentist provides a filling or a root filling under occasional treatment, with certain exceptions, the dentist is obliged to repair or replace such a filling at no charge to the patient up to 12 months after it was provided.

Regulation 4 further amends the 1989 Regulations to provide that no charge shall be made to a patient where the dentist repairs or replaces a filling in accordance with paragraph 17(4) of Schedule 1 to the 1992 Regulations (repair or replacement of a filling provided by a dentist as occasional treatment). It also extends regulation 3(2)(f) to provide that subject to a declaration of entitlement being made in the form prescribed, persons under the age of 25 years and those who have attained the age of 60 years will be entitled to receive, free of charge, an assessment carried out in accordance with paragraph 17(2)(a) of Schedule 1.