40. Miss Leeasked the Minister of Health how many dental nurses are being trained; what is the length of their training course; and what is the salary they will be paid when they take up their appointments.
§ Mr. Walker-SmithI assume the hon. Member has in mind the dental ancillaries for whom the General Dental Council is undertaking an experimental training scheme. Preparations for this are well advanced and it is intended that the first two year training course will begin next autumn. The salary payable to these ancillaries has not yet been settled.
Miss LeeIs the right hon. and learned Gentleman aware that his Answer is thoroughly unsatisfactory and that the purpose of putting the Question on the Order Paper was that very many of us, in, I am sure, all parts of the House, are concerned about the matter? Is the Minister aware that he is 50 per cent. under-staffed in school dentists and that he should be thinking of a very much larger scheme than he has in mind and should be speeding it up more quickly?
§ Mr. Walker-SmithI am sorry to disappoint the hon. Lady, but I am sure that she is in a minority in having that 797 reaction. I thought that my Answer was very encouraging indeed. It shows that we are getting on with the work of training the dental ancillaries. The question of the provision of dentists is another matter. I dealt with this last week in answer to a Question by an hon. Member representing one of the Leicester constituencies, and if the hon. Lady will study the answer which I am giving to my hon. Friend the Member for Hertford (Lord Balniel) today in regard to hospital building, she will see yet a further matter of interest in this context.
§ Mr. Walker-SmithIf the hon. Lady is referring to dental ancillaries as such, the training centre for them being built at the New Cross General Hospital will provide for an annual intake of 60 students. In addition, there are the dental hygienists, for whom we are also making training arrangements.
§ Dr. SummerskillIs the right hon. and learned Gentleman aware that my hon. Friend's anxiety is fully justified, because the Dentists Act which provided for these dental ancillaries was passed in 1955 when the right hon. and learned Gentleman's predecessor, who is now Secretary of State for the Colonies, approved it in principle and agreed that it would be an experiment, and the body which went to New Zealand was sent ten years ago? Therefore, the House cannot be surprised if my hon. Friend expresses some anxiety when the Ministry cannot tell us the precise position now.
§ Mr. Walker-SmithThat is the position, that this extensive building is going on at the New Cross General Hospital in London and that in the autumn the training of these people will start.
§ Mr. BevanCan the right hon. and learned Gentleman really express satisfaction at the progress which has been made when in 1959—perhaps he is not to blame; perhaps the Treasury is responsible—he is only now building the training colleges and facilities for ancillary dentists and hygienists although, as my right hon. Friend has mentioned, this was started ten years ago?
§ Mr. Walker-SmithIt would, of course, always be nicer in every respect if progress could have taken place 798 earlier. It would have been nicer to have been able to say that a practical start was made in these matters when the right hon. Gentleman had responsibility. There may have been progress in language but there was no building and there were no students when the right hon. Gentleman was in office.
§ Mr. DoddsIn view of the very unsatisfactory answer which the Minister has given, I give notice that I will raise the subject on the Adjournment next Monday.