§ Mr. CummingsTo ask the Secretary of State for Health by how much funding for national health service dentists has increased in real terms in the past three years.
§ Dr. MawhinneyThe latest information is shown in the table:
NHS Dental Services: Gross Expenditure1 England Year Gross expenditure (cash £ million) Gross expenditure (real terms £ million2) Percentage increase (real terms) Year on year2 Percentage increase (real terms) 1988–89 to 1991–922 1989–90 1,118.4 1,288.4 3-5.4 — 1990–91 1,229.6 1,311.5 1.8 — 1991–92 1,521.0 1,521.0 16.0 311.7 Sources: Information for the general dental services (GDS) is from the relevant year's appropriation account. Information for the hospital dental service (HDS) and community dental service (CDS) are from the annual health authority accounts up to 1990–91 and from health authority annual financial returns for 1991–92.
Notes:
1 Total expenditure on national health service dental services combines gross expenditure on the GDS, HDS and CDS, respectively. Gross expenditure includes income from patient charges, net of refunds.
2 Gross domestic product deflator used to calculate real terms at 1991–92 prices.
3 Compared with real terms figure of £1,361.5 million for 1988–89.
§ Ms LynneTo ask the Secretary of State for Health what period of notice dental practitioners are required to give patients before they are removed from their national health service register; and in what form the notice is required to be.
§ Dr. MawhinneyDentists are required by their terms of service to give a patient three months notice in writing of their intention to terminate a continuing care or capitation arrangement. Exceptionally, a dentist may make a written application to the family health service authority for permission to terminate an arrangement sooner.