Plaid Cymru’s Autumn Conference has overwhelmingly passed a motion pledging that a future Plaid Cymru Government will support the creation of a School of Dentistry in Bangor, a major step forward in a campaign spearheaded by Arfon Senedd Member Siân Gwenllian MS.
The motion commits the party to establishing a dental school led by Bangor University in partnership with Aberystwyth University. It also pledges to introduce legislation to secure safe staffing levels in NHS dentistry. It comes amid an escalating crisis in dental care: between 2022-23 and 2023-24 Wales lost 36 General Dental Service contracts (a 7% drop) and 17 NHS practices (a 4% drop), while NHS dentistry work has fallen by almost 40% over the past decade and recruitment of associates has halved compared with UK-wide figures.
Siân Gwenllian has led a wide-ranging campaign to tackle the dental care crisis in North Wales, where access to NHS services is especially poor. She commissioned the landmark report Filling the Gaps: The Case for Training Dentists in Bangor, which sets out the health, education, and economic case for establishing a local dental school. Since then, she has launched a public petition at the Welsh Dental Association conference in October 2024, convened a Senedd seminar bringing together university leaders, dentists, and fellow MSs, and built broad support for the cause—nearly all of Gwynedd’s community councils have passed motions of support, and cross-party MSs have urged the Welsh Government to commission a strategic outline case.
Despite this groundswell, the Welsh Government has so far refused to fund the project. Welcoming the Conference decision, Siân Gwenllian MS said:
“This is a landmark moment for our campaign and for communities across North Wales. I’m delighted that Plaid Cymru has embraced my call to make a Bangor dental school a firm manifesto commitment as we prepare to enter government.
“For too long I have been inundated with distressing stories from constituents—people in pain, unable to find an NHS dentist, sometimes ending up in A&E. That is simply unacceptable.”
Mair Rowlands, Plaid Cymru candidate for Bangor Conwy Môn in the 2026 Senedd elections added:
“A dental school in Bangor will help train and retain local dentists, improve access to care, boost prevention, and strengthen both our regional economy and Bangor University’s contribution to the health sector. I am so proud to have made the case within my party and to see this commitment secured today.”
