NHS Dental Strategy (Hansard, 13 November 2000)

§ The Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State, Department of Health (Lord Hunt of Kings Heath)
My Lords, the dental strategy commits up to £100 million to improving NHS dental services, as outlined in the strategy.

§ Lord Clement-Jones
My Lords, I thank the Minister for that reply. The intention of providing access to NHS dentists for all by September 2001 is clearly laudable, but will not the bulk of that £100 million come from savings to be made in the existing system? Do we not need another 1,800 dentists before there is even a chance of achieving that objective?

§ Lord Hunt of Kings Heath
My Lords, general dental services expenditure has risen in real terms since 199697. A lot of the £100 million will be used specifically to improve access for NHS patients. As the noble Lord has suggested, we are determined to ensure that we meet the access pledge by September next year. There are now 17,700 dentists working in the GDS, which is 2,200 up on the 1992 figure and 1,300 up on the 1997 figure.

§ Baroness Trumpington
My Lords, what provision is there for emergency dental treatment on a Sunday in the NHS? On Sunday a week ago, a friend of mine was sent by her doctor to the Acorn dental surgery in Slough for the extraction of one tooth. The surgery said that it would not do it unless she paid £267 in cash. Another friend of mine ended up paying with five cheques, because that was all that the surgery would accept. What does the new dental strategy do for emergency cases?

§ Lord Hunt of Kings Heath
My Lords, I hope that we shall do a lot better than that. We recognise that the current availability of emergency dental services is patchy throughout the country. Members of the public have sometimes found it difficult to obtain information about where to go for emergency treatment. One of our key aims is to ensure that health authorities enable the public to have access to effective emergency dental services. We shall ensure that NHS 5 Direct has the information for that by next year. We also want to ensure that any charges made are reasonable.

§ Lord Avebury
My Lords, are the Government satisfied that fluoridation is the most exhaustively tested public health measure that the world has ever known? What additional resources will be devoted to it as part of the strategy?

§ Lord Hunt of Kings Heath
My Lords, fluoridation is one of the elements of an effective oral health strategy. We have made it clear in our strategy that we expect health authorities to be proactive in combating issues of access and dental disease. Your Lordships may be aware that a report from York University commissioned by the Government concluded in October that fluoridation helps to reduce tooth decay. It also found no evidence to support the concerns that had been expressed about the health effects. We have told health authorities, particularly those with a high incidence of dental disease, that we expect them to consider fluoridation as one way of tackling those problems.

§ Lord Astor of Hever
My Lords, following on from the comments of the noble Lord, Lord Clement-Jones, about savings already made, how much of the £100 million is new money rather than resources that have already been announced?

§ Lord Hunt of Kings Heath
My Lords, it is all new money in the sense that the bulk of it is going into dentists' pockets. The £100 million includes £35 million of new money to help modernise equipment and premises, £4 million of new money for a dental care development fund and £20 million of new money for PDS pilots, including dental access. We had already announced that we accepted in principle the recommendation of the Review Body on Doctors' and Dentists' Remuneration on dentists' commitments, but we did not give details until the strategy announcement. The £100 million includes £28 million for that. In the end, this money will go to dentists and will improve access. It is in addition to money that was announced previously as being available.

§ Baroness Gardner of Parkes
My Lords, in view of the fact that a large notice appears in today's newspapers stating that if a person fraudulently claims free treatment under the National Health Service he will be prosecuted, will the Minister tell me whether the forms have been simplified? It used to be possible simply to sign a form if one was claiming, for example, housing benefit. However, if one needed help for one-off dental treatment, one had to complete multiple pages covering prison visits and so on. Has the form been simplified, making it clearer to dentists and patients how claims are to be made?

§ Lord Hunt of Kings Heath
My Lords, we are examining the forms. Examples of new forms that we should like to develop are to be found in the dental 6 strategy. In particular, they show when patients receive NHS and private treatment. In addition, where large-scale treatment is to take place, they encourage dentists to set out the estimated cost. We are very keen to ensure that patients receive as much information as possible. Equally, the launch of "Combating Fraud in Dentistry" is designed to ensure that only people who are eligible for discounts on their treatment receive it.