§ Mr. Gareth WardellTo ask the Secretary of State for Wales if he will extend the role of community dentists to include patients who are currently denied access to general dental practitioners who refuse to treat national health service patients.
§ Mr. Gwilym JonesThe community dental service is obliged to provide facilities for a full range of treatment to patients who have experienced difficulty in obtaining treatment in the general dental service.
§ Mr. Gareth WardellTo ask the Secretary of State for Wales if he will publish a list of those family health services 1001W authorities in Wales that have contacted his Department to express concern as to their inability to provide national health service dental services due to the shortage of dentists willing to be employed on family health services authority pay scales.
§ Mr. Gwilym JonesNo family health services authority in Wales has, to date, expressed concern to the Department that it would be unable to recruit salaried dentists.
§ Mr. Gareth WardellTo ask the Secretary of State for Wales what estimate he has made of the effect of the current dispute on the time taken for people to obtain dental treatment.
§ Mr. Gwilym JonesThe time taken for people to obtain dental treatment will vary from area to area according to local circumstances. If patients are unable to obtain treatment within a reasonable period they should approach their family health services authority for assistance.
§ Mr. Gareth WardellTo ask the Secretary of State for Wales if he will place in the Library the criteria each family health services authority in Wales uses to measure cross-infection rates in dental surgeries.
§ Mr. Gwilym JonesThe measuring of cross-infection rates is a matter for each family health services authority. Information on techniques used by individual authorities is not held centrally. However, guidance on cross-infection control is issued by the Department from time to time and I refer to the answer which was given to the hon. Gentleman on 10 July 1991,Official Report, column 388.
§ Mr. Alex CarlileTo ask the Secretary of State for Wales what is the number of dentists in Wales in the national health service and that number as a percentage of dentists in the United Kingdom; and if he will make a statement.
§ Mr. Gwilym JonesProvisional figures as at 30 September 1991 show that there were 832 dentists in the general dental service in Wales. This represented 4.5 per cent. of the United Kingdom figure of 18,621.
As at 30 September 1990, the latest information available, there were 292—207.9 whole-time equivalent—dentists in the hospital and community dental services. This represented 6.2 per cent. of the United Kingdom figure of 4,676, or 6.5 per cent. of the whole-time equivalent of 3,182.2.