§ Mr. BayleyTo ask the Secretary of State for Health how many people were registered as NHS patients with a general dental practitioner in north Yorkshire in each year since 1992–93. [20874]
§ Mr. MaloneThe table shows the number of adults, children and total number of patients registered at 30 September in each year from 1992 to 1996 in North Yorkshire family health services authority. Since May 1994, the Dental Practice Board has continued to improve procedures for eliminating duplicate registrations. This will have resulted in a lower registration figure.
General Dental Service: Number of child and adult registrations1,2 in North Yorkshire at 30 September from 1992 to 1996 Child registrations Adult registrations All registrations September 1992 108,254 351,027 459,281 September 1993 112,996 343,918 456,914 September 1994 114,580 333,895 448,475 September 1995 113,699 319,965 433,664 September 1996 114,098 315,910 430,008 Notes:
1Dentists receive scheduled payments a month in arrears. Therefore the September figures relate to the status of registrations at the end of September. An active registration is one for which payment has been made in respect of September and which the registration was not due to lapse until after September.
2The number of registrations counted on the Dental Practice Board data basis is not the same as the number of patients registered, since it is possible for one patient to be registered with more than one dentist. Over the period April 1994 to September 1996 a considerable number of such duplicate registrations have been cleaned from the database. The Dental Practice Board processes which ensure the correct recording of registrations have also been tightened.