Dental Services (Hansard, 30 March 1999)

§ 20. Mr. Baker
To ask the Secretary of State for Health what steps he has taken to ensure that everybody has access to a local NHS dentist. [77718]

§ Mr. Denham
The investing in dentistry (IID) initiative, which we launched in September 1997, and the personal dental services (PDS) scheme, which we announced on 1 January 1998, can both help to improve access to national health service dentistry. IID provides grants to enable dentists to expand existing practices and set up new ones in those areas of the country where the provision of NHS dental services is inadequate and oral health inequalities are most acute. PDS encourages health authorities to work with dentists to develop a variety of new arrangements to improve access to NHS dentistry.

§ 22. Mr. Kidney
To ask the Secretary of State for Health what has been the underspend on his Department's "investing in dentistry" initiative. [77720]

§ Mr. Denham
We expect all the funding available for 1998–99 for investing in dentistry (HD) to be assigned by the end of the financial year. Funding available in the first year of IID was not fully utilised, as most approvals became due for payment in the second year of the scheme.

§ 30. Mr. Gordon Prentice
To ask the Secretary of State for Health what assessment he has made of the effectiveness of the "investing in dentistry" initiative. [77728]

§ Mr. Denham
Investing in dentistry has been extremely effective. We have approved over £8 million of grants which will enable around 650,000 people to receive access to national health service dentistry. All dentists receiving grants will be monitored by their health authority to ensure that the conditions of the grant are met; if the dentist does not meet the commitment to provide NHS dentistry to the number of people specified, the grant can be reclaimed in whole or in part.

§ Mr. Gordon Prentice
To ask the Secretary of State for Health if he will extend the principles of clinical governance outlined in "A First Class Service" to dentists working in the general dental services. [79414]

§ Mr. Denham
Health Service Circular 1999/065 "Clinical Governance: Quality in the new NHS" makes it clear that clinical governance arrangements will include general dental practitioners, optometrists and pharmacists. Clinical Governance in the General Dental Services will be implemented to a similar time scale as the rest of the national health service.
To develop clinical governance in the GDS we will build on the elements already in place, underpinned by continuing professional development and strengthened by self-regulation.