§ Mr. DhandaTo ask the Secretary of State for Health (1) if he will make a statement on the progress of the NHS dentistry support team's work with primary care trusts in Gloucestershire; [186311]
(2) if he will make a statement on the progress of the action plan to establish new dental practices in Gloucestershire. [186312]
§ Ms Rosie WintertonThe national health service dentistry support team is working with West Gloucestershire Primary Care Trust (PCT). The PCT's dental action plan has been endorsed by the support team and will be published following the PCT's board meeting on 16 September.
Additional recurrent funding of £400,000 has been allocated by the support team to the PCT to support the developments contained in its action plan.
§ Mr. LoveTo ask the Secretary of State for Health how many dental practices are offering NHS dental services in the London borough of Enfield; and what efforts are being made to increase their availability. [187004]
§ Mr. HuttonData for numbers of dentists accepting new patients are not collected by London borough.
The available information on practises accepting new patients is on the nhs.uk website at www.nhs.uk. The table shows the number of dentists in Enfield Primary Care Trust (PCT) accepting new patients.
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Number of dental practices in Enfield PCT accepting new national health service patients by type of patient as at 27 July 2004
Service Accepting new patients
Total number of
practices
51 Providing occasional NHS treatment to non registered patients 4 — Registering charge exempt adults for NHS treatment 21 — Registering charge paying adults for NHS treatment 22 — Registering children aged 0–18 years for NHS treatment 30 — Note: Enfield PCT (as part of North Central London) has the highest general dental practitioner per 1,000 population ratio in the United Kingdom (= 0.5). Enfield PCT recognises that practices are not always located in the areas of greatest need. As part of developing its commissioning strategy for dentistry, the PCT will look to increase the number of personal dental services in Enfield in 2004–05 and has already put aside space for a dental practice at the local investment finance trust Forest Road Primary Care Centre, Edmonton, in February 2006.
§ Bob RussellTo ask the Secretary of State for Health how many dentists in the Colchester constituency provide NHS treatment; how many provided NHS treatment in 1997; and if he will make a statement. [186979]
§ Dr. LadymanInformation is not collected by parliamentary constituency. However, there were 82 dentists providing National Health Service treatment in the Colchester Primary Care Trust area, which includes the Colchester constituency, in September 2003, the latest data available. In September 1997, there were 72 dentists. These numbers cover dentists working in the general dental service or personal dental service.
§ Mr. RuffleyTo ask the Secretary of State for Health what percentage of NHS dentists in the Bury St. Edmunds constituency are registering new NHS patients. [187202]
§ Dr. LadymanThis information is not collected by Parliamentary constituency. However, there are 34 national health service dental practices in the Suffolk West Primary Care Trust area, which covers the Bury St. Edmunds constituency. Of these, 12, or 35.3 per cent., of the total, are registering children, eight, or 23.5 per cent., are registering charge exempt adults and six, or 17.6 per cent., are registering charge paying adults. In addition, one practice is providing occasional NHS treatment for non registered patients.
Source:
NHS.UK website.
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§ Mr. RuffleyTo ask the Secretary of State for Health how many dentists have applied to become NHS dentists in each year since 2000 in Suffolk. [187206]
§ Dr. LadymanThe number of entrants into national health service dentistry in each year since 2000 in Suffolk primary care trusts (PCTs) are shown in the table.
2000 2001 2002 2003 Central Suffolk PCT area1 5 3 3 3 Suffolk Coastal PCT area2 3 1 1 2 Suffolk West PCT area3 8 14 16 10 1Figures for Central Suffolk are based on general dental service (GDS) contracts only. There are no personal dental service (PDS) dentists in this PCT area. 2Figures for Suffolk Coastal are based on GDS contracts only. There are no PDS dentists in this PCT area. 3Figures are based on GDS and PDS contracts.