§ 28. Mr. David NicholsonTo ask the Secretary of State for Health if he will make a statement on the measures he has taken to ensure an adequate provision of NHS dentistry. [23492]
§ Mr. MaloneWe are committed to an effective and accessible national health service dental service that is available to all who wish to make use of it. Our record bears this out
At 31 December 1995 there were 15,942 NHS dentists on the lists of family health services authorities in England, the highest December figure ever. This is 516 more dentists than at 30 June 1992 and 3,796 more dentists than at 30 September 1979.At 29 February there were 26.4 million patients registered. This is broadly in line with the position at 30 June 1992.In 1994–95 gross expenditure on general dental services in England was £1,279 million, an increase in real terms of 57 per cent. since 1978–79.In 1994–95 there were 3.7 million more adult dental examinations compared with 1979.In general, the former family health services authorities have not reported difficulties in achieving our aim. Where there are local problems, health authorities have a range of options, including use of salaried dentists and the community dental service to deal with these. There are 126 salaried dentists currently employed by the health authorities.
In the short term, we are discussing with the dental profession a range of issues aimed to reform dental services. In the longer term, we aim to put in place a purchaser-provider system which will be sensitive to local needs. This needs primary legislation.
476W
§ Mr. Simon HughesTo ask the Secretary of State for Health on what date dentists were first required to register their patients; and when his Department first received information on(a) total registrations with dentists and (b) total deregistrations by dentists from each family health service authority or equivalent body. [25132]
§ Mr. MaloneDentists first registered patients on 1 October 1990, when the current dental contract was introduced.
Information about total registrations of patients with general dental practitioners was first received in December 1990.
Information about the number of deregistrations by general dental practitioners was first collected by the Department in July 1992.
Deregistrations are not a meaningful measure of the availability of national health service dentistry. A dentist may deregister his patients in order to transfer them to another dentist working at the same practice address. These patients still have access to national health service dentistry, but are counted as deregistrations. The arrival of a new dentist to an area may resolve the availability problem in the area, but this will not be reflected in the deregistrations.
§ Mr. HughesTo ask the Secretary of State for Health how many (i) children, (ii) adults and (iii) people in total were registered with dentists in each family health service authority in(a) February 1993, (b) July 1993, (c) February 1994, (d) July 1994, (e) February 1995, (f) July 1995 and (g) February 1996. [25133]
§ Mr. MaloneThis information will be placed in the Library.