§ Mr. Paul MarsdenTo ask the Secretary of State for Health how much was paid by the NHS to Dr. Jonathan Lampard to set up his NHS dentistry service. [177679]
§ Dr. LadymanJonathan Lampard received a grant of £45,000 to help establish his new practice in Shrewsbury in 1998.
The grant was provided under the Investing in Dentistry scheme through Section 56 of the National Health Service Act 1977 and approved by the Secretary of State. The conditions agreed by Mr. Lampard included the registration of at least 2,000 patients within one year of opening the practice, the addition of 200 patients during the second year and maintaining that level for a further year. The agreement remained valid for a period of three years from the date of the first registrations (26 March 1998) after which time Mr. Lampard was free of all commitment to the NHS under the agreement.
§ Mr. Paul MarsdenTo ask the Secretary of State for Health if he will make a statement on how NHS terms and conditions allowed Dr. Jonathan Lampard, a dentist in Shrewsbury, to leave the NHS. [177680]
§ Dr. LadymanUnder current arrangements, dentists working in the general dental services (GDS) are self employed independent contractors providing dental services. Dentists can practice wherever they like. There 895W are no restrictions and, provided they meet the conditions of suitability, they have an automatic right to provide GDS. They can accept as many or as few national health service patients as they wish and can alter that commitment at will without reference to the primary care trust (PCT). If a dentist working in the GDS wishes to terminate a patient's NHS registration, he/she must give three months notice of his/her intention to the patient. Dentists can quite legally accept only certain categories of patients, for example, children and exempt adults. There is no requirement to give any notice to the PCT about changes in practice acceptance arrangements or of termination of registrations.
Under proposals in the Health and Social Care (Community Health and Standards) Act 2003, PCTs will be given new responsibility to secure dental services and will be able to provide assistance and support to dental practices with which they contract. With this responsibility will go the resources, totalling some £1.4 billion for 2004–05, held centrally for dentistry to support them in delivering their new duties on dentistry.
The shadow special health authority we set up last August for dentistry is aiming to issue in July indicative contract values to dentists and PCTs to enable them to begin discussions about contracts under the new arrangements. PCTs will be able to agree an increase in a dentist's contract value in return for increased commitment.