§ Mr. Terry DavisTo ask the Secretary of State for Health (1) what official arrangements are made to protect the confidentiality of information concerning dental patients sent by dentists to the Dental Practice Board; and whether he will make a statement;
(2) what communications he has received from the General Dental Practitioners Association regarding the activities of the Dental Practice Board; and whether he will make a statement;
(3) what statutory authority has been used by the Dental Practice Board in connection with home visits by officials of the Dental Practice Board.
§ Mr. DorrellApart from the board's being subject to the Data Protection Act 1984, any member of the Dental Practice Board's staff who breaches confidentiality may be subject to disciplinary action. The secretary of the General Dental Practitioners Association wrote to my right hon. Friend the Secretary of State on 25 February 1991 about home visits to patients. Such inquiries are made by the board in the course of referring a matter to a Family Health Services Authority for investigation. Home visits to patients are only undertaken when the board has reason to believe that there has been non-compliance with the regulations governing the provision of general dental services.
§ Mr. Terry DavisTo ask the Secretary of State for Health (1) how many home visits on the initiative of the Dental Practice Board have been made to dental patients during the last six months; for what purposes; and with how many dental practitioners involved;
(2) how many cases of fraud or other malpractice have been discovered by the Dental Practice Board following home visits by their officials;
(3) what criteria are used by the Dental Practice Board in deciding whether to initiate home visits to dental patients;
498W(4) what has been the total cost of the visits by Dental Practice Board Officials to dental patients during the last 12 months.
§ Mr. DorrellIn the last six months 85 home visits by members of the boards investigation staff have been carried out, involving eight dental practitioners, in cases where the board had reason to believe that there had been non-compliance with the regulations governing the provision of general dental services. In the past 12 months there have been 312 patient interviews involving 17 practitioners. The police have been consulted in connection with four of these cases and their inquiries are continuing. Seven dentists, including two of the four involved in police inquiries, have been referred to the Dental Service Committee of the relevant family health services authority. In the case of nine dentists the Dental Practice Board's inquiries are continuing and one case has been dropped. The cost of home visits over the past year is estimated at £3,500.