§ Mr. Gordon PrenticeTo ask the Secretary of State for Health what data support the 5 rating given to Burley, Pendle and Rossendale primary care trust for access to NHS dentistry. [127188]
§ Ms Rosie WintertonThe indicator in the 2002–03 National Health Service performance ratings relating to access to NHS dentistry asked primary care trusts (PCTs) whether or not they had 'plans in place to enable234W people to obtain NHS dentistry within local standards, following requests for help through NHS Direct and local inquiry points' at the end of March 2003.
Therefore, if a PCT met this criteria then, as per the performance ratings scoring system, they were assigned a score of five. Conversely, if a PCT did not meet this criteria at the said date, they would be assigned a score of one. Burley, Pendle and Rossendale PCT reported that it had met the above criteria and thus was assigned a score of five for this particular performance indicator within the 2002–03 NHS performance ratings. This score was then used in conjunction with performance on a wide range of other measures to determine that NHS organisation's performance (star) rating.
§ Mr. ViggersTo ask the Secretary of State for Health what criteria determine whether a primary care trust qualifies as providing access to an NHS dentist. [127388]
§ Ms Rosie WintertonPrimary care trusts (PCTs) should be able to respond to requests for dentistry whether it is emergency, urgent or routine as defined by the clinical algorithms developed with the dental profession by NHS Direct. For each of these categories of need, the PCT needs to have a distance standard related to local geography, which has been agreed with local stakeholders and published. For emergency care, distance standards would be similar to those for other National Health Service emergency services. A PCT providing full access to NHS dentistry will be achieving compliance with both clinical and distance standards. Not all PCTs fulfil both these sets of criteria.
The 2002–03 performance indicator for dentistry asked if
plans are in place to enable people to obtain NHS dentistry within local standards, following requests for help through NHS Direct and local enquiry points".This was to recognise the endeavours of PCTs to address dentistry issues even where they remain unresolved.
A new NHS dentistry support team has been set up to work with local officials in PCTs with particular issues regarding access to NHS dentistry to help them tackle these problems. The support team will be up and running in September this year, and will have support funding to address particularly acute of long-standing difficulties.
§ Tim LoughtonTo ask the Secretary of State for Health how many NHS dentists are available in the Adur, Arun and Worthing PCT area. [127560]
§ Ms Rosie WintertonNational health service dentists cover dentists in the general dental service (GDS), hospital dental service (HDS), community dental service (CDS) and personal dental service (PDS). Information at primary care trust (PCT) level is not available for the CDS and HDS because these services are provided by NHS trusts, which do not have clearly defined geographical boundaries.
The latest information for March 2003 is shown in the following table and gives the number of GDS and PDS dentists who carry out the majority of the work in Adur, Arun and Worthing PCT.
235WThese figures are on a headcount rather than whole-time equivalent basis and take no account of part-time working. Dentists working in both PDS and GDS are counted in the GDS only.
NHS Dental Services: Number of dentists in Adur, Arun and Worthing PCT, as at 31 March 2003
Adur, Arun and Worthing PCT1 GDS dentists 98 PDS dentists2, 3 12 1 Dentists who carry out the majority of their work in the PCT. 2 Dentists working in the PDS who are not also working in the GDS. 3> West Sussex Community PDS scheme covers Adur, Arun and Worthing PCT.
§ Mr. HoyleTo ask the Secretary of State for Health how many NHS dentists there are in the Chorley constituency; and what steps he is taking to increase the number of NHS dentists in the Chorley constituency. [127292]
§ Miss Melanie JohnsonThe information on the number of dentists in the Chorley constituency is shown in the table.
General and Personal Dental Service: number of dentists in the Chorley and South Ribble constituency area Health authority/primary care trust
1GDS dentists
Salaried dentists
PDS dentists
2At 30 September 2002 South Lancashire HA 100 1 3 At 31 March 2003 Chorley and South Ribble PCT 56 1 3 1 Only dentists with the majority of patients in the South Lancashire HA and the Charley and Ribble PCT are included. 2 Dentists working in the South Lancashire PDS pilot who are not also working in the GDS. Notes:
1. Dentists are free to work in more than one health authority or primary care trust, therefore, dentists who do some work in this area HA/PCT but more in another HA/PCT have not been included.
2. NHS dentists cover dentists working in the General Dental Service (GDS), Hospital Dental Service (HDS), Community Dental Service (CDS), Personal Dental Service (PDS) and Salaried Service of the GDS.
3. The number of GDS dentists includes Principals, Assistants, Vocational Dental Practitioners.
4. These figures are on a headcount basis rather than a whole time equivalent (wte) basis and therefore take no account of part-time working. In the GDS, the amount of time spent working in the NHS varies greatly with a large proportion of dentists doing some private work. Dentists working solely in private dentistry are not covered in these figures.
I understand that Cumbria and Lancashire strategic health authority is working with the local Chorley and South Ribble Primary Care Trust (PCT) on access to national health service dentistry. Chorley and South Ribble PCT has plans in place to enable people within Chorley to obtain NHS dentistry service.