HC Deb 19 September 2003 vol 410 cc1276-8W
Mr. Paul Marsden

To ask the Secretary of State for Health if he will estimate the number of(a) children and (b) adults waiting to register with an NHS dentist in Shrewsbury and Atcham. [129638]

Dr. Ladyman

This information is not held centrally.

Mr. Paul Marsden

To ask the Secretary of State for Health how many children received NHS dental treatment in Shrewsbury and Atcham in each year since 1997. [129640]

Dr. Ladyman

For the general dental service (CDS) the available information is for children's registrations, which cover children aged under 18 years seen by a dentist within the past 15 months. This information is at health authority level between 1998 and 2002 and primary care trust (PCT) level for 2002 and 2003.

The first table shows the number of children's registrations in Shropshire Health Authority and the Shropshire County PCT and Telford and Wrekin PCT areas between 1998 and 2003.

In addition, children were also seen for treatment in the community and personal dental services. The numbers are shown in the second table.

General Dental Service: Number of children's registrations in Shropshire health authority area and PCT area between 1998 and 2003
Number of patients registered (thousand)
Shropshire County PCT Shropshire HA Telford and Wrekin PCT
30 September
1998 66.5
1999 67.4
2000 67.4
2001 65.8
At 31 August
2002 66.9
At 30 September
2002 39.9 26.8
At 30 June
2003 39.4 27.0

Strategic Health Authority/Primary Care Trust England Cheshire and Merseyside SHA Bebington and West Wirral PCT Birkenhead and Wallasey PCT Total of the two PCTs
Number of registrations
Adults 1168 2915.3 254.2 288.4 2142.6
Children 16.7 2332.6 216.3 231.1 247.4
Total 123.5 21,247.9 270.5 2119.5 2190.0
Number of GDS dentists3
All dentists 18,335 837 46 82 128
Principals 16,401 765 44 70 114
Assistants 1,347 42 1 4 5
Vocational Dental Practitioners 587 30 1 8 9
Number of persons per dentist4 2,682 2,799 2,586 2,357 2,439
Number of registrations per dentist 1,283 1,491 1,532 1,457 1,484
Registration rate4 (%) 48.0 53.3 59.2 61.8 60.8

1 Millions

2 Thousands

3Some dentists have contracts in more than one Primary Care Trust. These dentists have been counted only once in the PCT in which they hold their main contract.

4 For population, mid year ONS population estimates based on the 2001 census have been used for England. Mid-year 2001 resident relevant population estimates based on GP patients registration data and constrained by ONS census based population for 2001 have been used for SHA and PCTs

Source:

Dental Practice Board

Mr. Ben Chapman

To ask the Secretary of State for Health what his Department's strategy is for(a) maintaining and (b) increasing participation levels of dentists in the NHS. [128605]

Ms Rosie Winterton

A national health service support team is being set up to support those primary care trusts (PCTs) and practices which are under greatest pressure. The team will provide advice arid guidance on best practice in increasing access and modernising dentistry locally, backed by £3 million support funds in 2003–04 and £6 million in 2004–05 to tackle particularly acute or longstanding bottlenecks.

The Health and Social Care (Community Health and Standards) Bill, currently before Parliament, proposes new duties for PCTs to secure the provision of primary dental services and the financial resources to do so. The proposals in this Bill will underpin a modernised high-quality primary dental service provided through contracts between PCTs and dental practices properly integrated with the rest of the NHS.

Number seen/treated
1998–99 4,200
1999–2000 3,200
2000–01 3,500
2001–02 3,100
2002–03 1,200

Source:

Dental Practice Board

Mr. Ben Chapman

To ask the Secretary of State for Health if he will make a statement on the availability of NHS dentistry on the Wirral. [128604]

Miss Melanie Johnson

The information requested in shown in the table.

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