§ Mr. SwireTo ask the Secretary of State for Health (1) how many dentists providing treatment on the NHS were registered in East Devon in each of the past seven years; [155304]
1329W(2) how many dental practices providing dental care in the NHS there were in East Devon in each of the past seven years. [155305]
§ Ms Rosie WintertonThe tables show the number of National health service dentists on a head count basis and the number of practice addresses in North and East Devon Health Authority at September each year from 1997 to 2002. Following the health service re-organisation, figures for East Devon Primary Care Trust area, at September 2003, are given.
This information covers dentists working in the general dental services (GDS), personal dental services (PDS) and salaried service of the GDS. Excluded are the community and hospital dental services.
Dentists working in more than one dental service are included in each service, apart from dentists working in both PDS and GDS who are counted only once.
National health service: Number of dentists at September each year
Health Authority North and East Devon
Primary Care Trust East Devon
1997 177 — 1998 185 — 1999 195 — 2000 199 — 2001 209 — 2002 206 — 2003 — 38
National health service: Number of dental practices at August each year
Health Authority North and East Devon Primary Care Trust East Devon 1997 82 — 1998 83 — 1999 86 — 2000 90 — 2001 90 — 2002 92 — 2003 — 17
§ Mr. WigginTo ask the Secretary of State for Health what plans he has to increase the availability of NHS dentistry. [155373]
§ Ms Rosie WintertonWe have provided new investment totalling £90 million to national health service dentistry over the last year. £59 million will support access, and strategic health authorities have been advised of their shares and are working with their primary care trusts (PCTs) to address access issues. £30 million is to support information technology and the balance of £1 million will support organisational development locally.
A NHS support team is currently working with 16 PCTs where it is hardest to find a NHS dentist to develop plans to overcome the problems. The team is backed by £9 million support funds to enable these hard-pressed areas to increase access. These measures build on steps we have already taken to improve access to NHS dentistry, including the establishment of dental access centres.
1330WThe Health and Social Care (Community Health and Standards) Act gives new duties for PCTs to secure the provision of primary dental services. From April 2005, PCTs will directly manage provision, commissioning dental services from local practices. With these new responsibilities will go the financial resources currently held centrally, which by 2005–06 are expected to total nearly £1.5 billion.
§ Mrs. HumbleTo ask the Secretary of State for Health how many NHS dentists there are in the Blackpool North and Fleetwood constituency. [157911]
§ Miss Melanie JohnsonInformation is not collected on a constituency basis but at primary care trust (PCT) level. Data for Blackpool PCT and Wyre PCT, as at 31 December 2003, is shown in the table.
Primary care trust General dental service (GDS)
Personal dental service (PDS)
Blackpool 46 1 Wyre 40 — Notes: 1. PDS figure covers dentists not already working in the GDS. 2. Dentists are free to work in more than one PCT. Therefore, dentists who do some work in this area but more in another PCT
have not been included.
3. Dentists in the GDS include principals, assistants and vocational dental practitioners. These figures are on a headcount
basis rather than whole-time equivalent (wte) basis and therefore
take no account of part-time working. In the CDS, the amount of
time spent working in the national health service varies greatly,
with a large proportion of dentists doing some private work.
Dentists working solely in private dentistry are not covered by
these figures.
4. These figures exclude dentists working in the community dental service, hospital dental service and salaried service of the GDS.
Source: Dental Practice Board