§ Lord Colwynasked Her Majesty's Government:
How many hours a salaried dentist would expect to work per week and how many patients he or she would expect to have registered; and
What is the productivity of a salaried dentist compared to a general dental practitioner in terms of (a) number of hours worked and (b) number of patients registered.
§ Baroness CumberlegeA salaried dentist may be employed part-time on a sessional basis or full-time. He or she may work a minimum of one session a week (i. e., three hours) or may be fully employed for 37 hours a week. General dental practitioners are independent contractors who determine their own hours of employment and the proportion of their time devoted to NHS patients will vary. There is no valid comparison between part-time salaried dentists and independent general dental practitioners.
Information about the number of patients registered with salaried dentists is not available. For the financial year 1991– 92 there were 16,029 courses of treatment undertaken by salaried dentists in England and Wales. This compares with 27,371,914 courses provided by independent general dental practitioners during the same period.