§ Mr. PatersonTo ask the Secretary of State for Health what the average NHS patient list size is for(a) general practitioners and (b) dental practitioners. [137511]
§ Mr. HuttonData on the number of family doctors and patients are published annually. The latest edition, "Statistics for General Medical Practitioners in England: 1992–2002, is available at: http://www. doh.gov.uk/public/sb0303.pdf and shows that the average list is 1,838, four per cent. lower in 2002 than it was in 1992.
Dentists working in the general dental services (GDS) are free to register as many or as few patients as they choose. Patients who cannot, or who choose not to, register can still access national health service dental services through the personal dental service, community dental service, emergency dental service and the hospital dental service, and on an occasional basis, in the GDS.
At 30 June 2003, there were 16,326 principal dentists in the GDS in England and 23.5 million patients registered. On average, there were 1,436 registrations per principal dentist. Registrations cover patients seen in the last 15 months.