§ Mr. ViggersTo ask the Secretary of State for Health if he will make a statement on the availability to new patients of NHS dentistry in the Gosport constituency; and what the prescribed minimum level of availability is in England. [1355951
§ Ms Rosie Winterton[holding answer 4 November 2003]The Government are committed to ensure that national health service dentistry is available to all those who need and seek it. Those wishing to see a NHS dentist can do so by contacting NHS Direct for information on dentists offering NHS dental services in their areas. It is recognised that not all dentists on general dental service lists of primary care trusts (PCTs) are accepting new NHS registrations. We have set up a580W NHS Support Team to work with PCTs on dental access. We have also announced new funds totalling £44 million for 2003–04 and 2004–05 to support dental access, choice and quality.
Subject to Parliament, the Health and Social Care (Community Health and Standards) Bill will give new duties for PCTs to secure primary dental services. With these new responsibilities will go the £1.2 billion financial resources currently held centrally.
On 1 August 2003, as part of the new arrangements for NHS dentistry, we set up the new special health authority in shadow form to support PCTs. A team from the special health authority and the NHS dentistry support team met with NHS officials for Hampshire and the Isle of Wight at the end of October to discuss the development of a dentistry action plan and the support team will be working closely with the NHS locally to take this forward.
In the meantime, the Fareham and Gosport primary care trust is putting in place a range of measures to improve access to dental services in the area. This includes a dental access centre in Fareham designed to provide unregistered patients with access to NHS dentistry. This is supported by an incentive scheme which offers additional access to NHS dental care based in existing dental surgeries.
§ Mr. Austin MitchellTo ask the Secretary of State for Health (1) how many dentists in north east Lincolnshire provide NHS dentistry for adults; and how many will take new NHS clients onto their rolls; [137695]
(2) what proposals he has for improving access to NHS dentistry in north east Lincolnshire. [137696]
§ Miss Melanie Johnson44 general dental service (GDS) dentists were working in the North East Lincolnshire Primary Care Trust (PCT) area on 30 June 2003, all of whom provided national health service dentistry for adults.
The www.nhs.uk website shows that no dentists are taking on new NHS patients in the North East Lincolnshire PCT area.
Patients seeking to register with a dentist can access information on the dental practices taking on new NHS patients by contacting NHS Direct, their local PCT or by accessing the www.nhs.uk website. Registrations are being accepted in Stamford, Grantham and Lincoln.
The Department has approved an application for funding one full time salaried dentist plus support staff, which has been submitted by North East Lincolnshire PCT.
Following local discussion between the PCT and local dental practitioners, a proposal has been developed to establish an urgent "dental access service" based in Grimsby to serve north east Lincolnshire patients.