§ Mrs. CaltonTo ask the Secretary of State for Health pursuant to the answer of 17 March 2004,Official Report, column 388W, on IT (Dentists), (1) what pilot schemes have been undertaken to facilitate integration of NHS dentistry within the national programme for IT; [163906]
(2) what assessment has been made of (a) the success of and (b) areas for improvement within pilot schemes to facilitate integration of NHS dentistry within the national programme for IT. [163907]
§ Ms Rosie WintertonForty seven dental practices in England are involved in 23 pilot schemes set up by the Modernisation Agency as part of the modernising dentistry programme, which was created following the publication of Options for Change in August 2002. The aim of the modernising dentistry programme is to facilitate new ways of working in the delivery of National Health Service primary care dental services. Allied to this are streams of work to support modernisation in dental hospitals and secondary care.
The focus is on supporting and improving any area of patient care through the better use of Information Technology (IT) and the National Programme for IT (NpfIT) is developing services that are intended to be used by all NHS clinicians. This includes dentists, and we will be testing new ways of working and contributing to the new dental service which will be rolled out from 2005 onwards. Although these pilots were initiated prior to dentistry being brought into the NPfIT, the outcomes of these pilots will feed directly into the future requirements for dental IT systems.