Free Dental Treatment (Hansard, 6 July 1993)

§ 9. Mr. Gunnell
To ask the Secretary of State for Health if she will make a statement on the future of the rules governing free dental treatment.

§ 12. Ms Eagle
To ask the Secretary of State for Health if she will make a statement on the future of the rules governing free dental treatment.

§ Dr. Mawhinney
Sir Kenneth Bloomfield's review of the remuneration of general dental practitioners set out a number of options for changing the way in which we deliver general dental services. We have consulted widely on his report and will announce our proposals in due course.

§ Mr. Gunnell
Does the Minister agree that prevention is both wise and, in the longer term, economic? Is he not willing to implement the Select Committee's recommendation that a core service of diagnostic and preventive care should be available to all patients free of charge?

§ Dr. Mawhinney
Prevention is, of course, an important aspect of health care; the hon. Gentleman is right on that point. We have read the Select Committee report with great interest—and great care—and will reflect on it seriously before making a judgment. I am happy to give the hon. Gentleman that assurance. I remind him that paragraph 151 of the report says: There was, however … much more consensus amongst witnesses concerning the problems than concerning the solutions. It is right that we should take time in order to get a proper solution.

§ Ms Eagle
Will the Minister give an assurance that the Government have no intention whatever of removing from pregnant women and nursing mothers the current entitlement to free dental health care?

§ Dr. Mawhinney
What I will do is take the hon. Lady's views into consideration, even though the consultation period has concluded. I will do that against the background of my knowledge that at no time did the Labour party offer any considered view as part of the public consultation on the way in which dentistry should develop in this country. I have taken note of that. I have also taken note of the fact that the Liberal Democrats do not have a considered view for the future either.