HC Deb 01 May 2003 vol 404 cc513-5W
Mr. Drew

To ask the Secretary of State for Health how many patients were registered with NHS dentists in each of the last 10 years in the area covered by the Cotswold and Vale PCT. [109403]

Ms Blears

At 30 September 2002, 70,000 patients were registered with a general dental service (GDS) dentist in Cotswold and Vale Primary Care Trust. For the period of the last 10 years, registration data is available for the Gloucestershire Health Authority and Family Health Service Authority areas. The information shown in the table is for 30 September for the years 1993 to 2001 and for 31 August 2002.

Information on the uptake rate of the meningitis C conjugate vaccine in children and adults during the meningitis C campaign was published last year in "Communicable Disease and Public Health"—September 2002, vol 5 (3): 177–264. The percentage of children and adults immunised through this programme is shown in the table. There is no information on uptake in adults aged over 18 years of age.

A copy of this paper is available in the Library.

General Dental Service: Number of persons registered with a dentist, 1993 to 2002—Gloucestershire Family Health Service Authority/Health Authority
Thousand
At 30 September Number of persons registered
1993 310
1994 287
1995 257
1996 247
1997 245
19981 214
19991 216
20001 212
20011 203
20021 199
1 Registration data for these years in not comparable with earlier years due to the change in the registration period. 2002 data is for 31 August.

Registrations lapse if patients do not return to their dentists within 15 months and so the registration figures exclude patients who haven't been to their GDS dentist within the past 15 months. Also excluded from the figures are patients who receive dental treatment from other National Health Service dental services, including dental access centres.

The number of patients registered with a dentist prior to November 1997 cannot be compared to those of later years due to the change in the registration period for new registration from September 1996.

Some of the reduction in recorded registration numbers is due to improvements in the methods of removing duplicate registration records, which were first employed by the Dental Practice Board in 1993.

Mr. Drew

To ask the Secretary of State for Health how many complaints each primary care trust in Gloucestershire has received in the last year from people who cannot get access to NHS dentists. [109405]

Ms Blears

The information is not collected centrally.

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