§ Mrs. DeanTo ask the Secretary of State for Health what estimate he has made of the number of NHS dental treatment places available for people in East Staffordshire in each of the past 10 years. [113150]
§ Mr. LammyThe number of patients registered with a general dental service (GDS) dentist at 28 February 2003 in East Staffordshire Primary Care Trust (PCT) was 58,000.
The number of patients registered in the health authorities covering the East Staffordshire area for 30 September in the years 1993 to 2001 and for 31 August 2003 is shown in the table.
GDS dentists are obliged to provide dental treatment to patients that are registered with them.
National health service dental treatment is also provided by the personal, community and hospital dental services in East Staffordshire as well as the salaried service of the GDS. These services do not require the patient to be registered before treatment and so are not included in this table.
General dental service: Number of patients registered in with a dentist, 1993 to 2002: England and the East Staffordshire area Thousand As at 30 September Staffordshire FHSA South Staffordshire HA 1993 598 n/a 1994 578 n/a 1995 557 n/a 1996 n/a 319 1997 n/a 317 19981 n/a 282 19991 n/a 279 20001 n/a 275 20011 n/a 269 20021.2 n/a 265 n/a = Not available 1 Affected by the change in the registration period to 15 months in September 1996 2 At 31 August 2002