§ 2. Mr. Baldockasked the Minister of Health whether he is aware that paragraph 109 of the University Grants Committee Report indicates an insufficient demand for dental education, and that accordingly the Committee cannot recommend the necessary acceleration of additional provision for dental education, although the present entry of 600 students a year is one-third less than the entry figure recommended by the Teviot Committee; and whether, in these circumstances, he will ascertain to what extent the status of the dental profession can be raised and made more attractive by permitting a larger part of prosthetic and other dental work to be carried out by suitably qualified technicians and auxiliaries.
§ The Parliamentary Secretary to the Ministry of Health (Miss Patricia Hornsby-Smith)Yes, Sir. Certain clauses of the Dentists' Bill, which will be reintroduced when Parliamentary time permits, provide for the establishment, subject to suitable safeguards, of ancillary dental workers.
§ Mr. BaldockIn view of the shortage of dentists as well as people under training for dentistry, will my hon. Friend consider whether these technicians should be allowed to carry out work which is not applied to living tissue, the type of work which they already do to qualified standards?
§ Miss Hornsby-SmithThat is another question. The Dentists Bill does not provide for that type of ancillary worker.