NHS Dentistry (Hansard, 16 July 2002)

§ 9. Charlotte Atkins
To ask the Secretary of State for Health if he will make a statement on dental health. [67272]

§ Mr. Lammy
Since the inception of the NHS oral health has improved greatly and NHS dentistry has worked well over this period. There have been dramatic falls in the numbers of adults and children with decayed, missing or filled teeth. However variations remain across the country and we are taking action to tackle these. We are also working with representatives of the profession to modernise NHS dentistry and to see how new demands on the service can be met for the benefit of patients and dentists.

§ 31. Mr. Don Foster
To ask the Secretary of State for Health what proportion of adults are registered with an NHS dentist. [67295]
190W

§ Mr. Lammy
Arrangements are now in place to ensure that patients can gain access to national health service services simply by calling NHS Direct. This means that even if a patient is not registered with a dentist it will still be possible for that patient to access all forms of dentistry that are provided by the NHS.
Forty-three per cent. of adults were registered with a general dental service dentist in England at 31 May 2002. Registrations lapse if patients do not return to the dentist within 15 months. Patients who are not registered can be seen under occasional treatment arrangements that were introduced last year.

§ Geraldine Smith
To ask the Secretary of State for Health what funding has been made available to the Morecambe and Lunesdale constituency for NHS dental provision. [60776]

§ Jacqui Smith
[pursuant to her reply, 24 June 2002, c. 727–28W]I regret that my previous reply was incorrect. It should read:
Information on funding of national health service dental provision is not available on a constituency basis.
The gross fees paid to general dental practitioners (GDP) within the old Morecambe Bay health authority area, for providing NHS dental treatment, were £9.28 million in 2001–02. Additional sums are paid to GDPs, for example to reimburse business rates. Funding for hospital and community dental services is drawn from the health authority's main allocation. This information is not identified separately.
In 2001–02 the following additional funds were made available to Morecambe Bay health authority to improve NHS dental services: £308,000 revenue and £312,000 capital to establish a personal dental services dental access centre pilot scheme (DAC). The DAC has a surgery in Barrow offering unregistered patients access to dental services. A second surgery, to be located in Morecambe, has been funded and should be operational from April 2003. In the interim Morecambe Bay PCT is looking into proposals to provide an alternative DAC site in Lancaster on a part-time basis. The revenue funding available for the current year for this DAC is up to £820,000 and a further capital payment will be made of around £160,000. The service aim is to treat up to 17,000 patients a year when both centres are fully operational. An allocation of £270,800 was made in 2001–02 to GDPs from the modernisation fund for grants to local dental practices to provide practice improvements and additional facilities. £7,500 was allocated to the health authority from the dental action plan fund to enable additional patient registrations to be secured.