HC Deb 16 May 2003 vol 405 cc481-3W
Mrs. Dean

To ask the Secretary of State for Health how many extra NHS dental places have been funded in(a) East Staffordshire and (b) England since 1997. [113149]

Mr. Lammy

Since 1997, the funding initiatives to increase the number of national health service dental treatment places in England have been:

£ million
Initiative Date Funding
Investing in Dentistry Scheme 1999–2000 11
Dental Care Development Fund 2000–01 4
Modernisation Fund 2001–02 35
Dental Action Plan 2001–02 10

These grants were distributed to health authorities (HAs) based on the existing provision of dental services and the estimated need for future services. The HAs were then responsible for distributing this money in the form of grants to general dental service dentists who would undertake to treat an agreed number of additional NHS patients. Information on the number of additional patients is not held centrally.

South Staffordshire HA, the authority responsible for the East Staffordshire area, was awarded £108,000 from the Investing in Dentistry scheme, £50,000 from the Dental Care Development Fund, £364,000 from the Modernisation Fund and £65,000 from the Dental Action Plan.

Mrs. Dean

To ask the Secretary of State for Health how many NHS dentists there are per head of population in(a) Staffordshire and (b) England. [113151]

Mr. Lammy

The number of NHS dentists working in North Staffordshire Health Authority, South Staffordshire Health Authority and England at 30 September 2001 and the number of dentists per 100,000 population is shown in the table. These figures are on a headcount basis rather than whole time equivalent and take no account of part-time working. Dentists working in more than one dental service are included in each service, apart from dentists working in both the personal dental service (PDS) and the general dental service (GDS) who are counted in the GDS only.

Dentists working solely in private dentistry are not covered in these figures.

NHS Dental Services: Number of dentists and number per 100,000 population—At 30 September 2001
North Staffordshire South Staffordshire
NHS dentists HA HA England
General Dental Services1 126 178 18,354
Salaried service of GDS 0 0 86
Personal Dental Services2 15 11 467
Community Dental Service3 0 10 1,348
Hospital Dental Services3 0 10 2,184
Number of dentists per 100,000 population4 31 37 46
1 The General Dental Service (GDS) figures cover principals on a HA list, assistants and vocational and dental practitioners.
2 The Personal Dental Service (PDS) covers dentists working in the PDS who are not working in the GDS.
3 Figures by Health Authority are rounded to the nearest 10.
4 Using ONS mid-year population estimates based on the 2001 census.

Mr. Paterson

To ask the Secretary of State for Health what percentage of the population in the Shropshire County Primary Care Trust has been registered with a dentist in each of the last five years. [113169]

Mr. Lammy

At 28 February 2003, 39.3 per cent, of the population for Shropshire County Primary Care Trust were registered with a general dental service (GDS) dentist. The information in the table shows the percentage of population registered with a dentist for Shropshire health authority area at 30 September for the years 1998 to 2001 and for 31 August 2002.

General Dental Service: Proportion of the population registered with a dentist, 1998 to 2002 Shropshire health authority
At 30 September Percentage
19981 44.4
19991 43.2
20001 42.7
20012 40.7
20023 41.4
1 1998–2000 ONS mid year population estimates based on the 1991 census.
2 2001 ONS mid year population estimates based on the 2001 census.
3 2002 data is at 31 August 2003.

Registrations lapse if patients do not return to their dentist within 15 months and so the registration figures exclude patients who have not 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.

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.

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