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NHS Dentistry
13. Charlotte Atkins (Staffordshire, Moorlands): What initiatives his Department is pursuing to increase the availability of NHS dentistry. [88250]
The Minister of State, Department of Health (Mr. John Denham): We have already taken action to improve the availability of NHS dentistry through the investing in dentistry and the personal dental services initiatives. We are currently considering options about how best to use available resources in the future to improve the availability of NHS dentistry further. As I said earlier, we shall publish a dental strategy later this year.
Charlotte Atkins: Is my hon. Friend aware that, when the Labour Government came to power, no NHS dentist in my constituency was accepting new NHS patients? Since then, new NHS dental practices have opened in Leek and Werrington, but more must be done if we are to safeguard the dental health of our population. I welcome the initiative on an NHS dental strategy, but will my hon. Friend assure me that new and innovative ways will be studied to spread access to NHS dentistry not only to inner-city areas but to rural constituencies such as mine?
Mr. Denham: My hon. Friend is right. In north Staffordshire, eight investing in dentistry bids have been approved since the Government came to power, of which my hon. Friend mentioned two. They should give a further 23,000 patients in the area the opportunity to access NHS dental care.
My hon. Friend is also right to say that, in developing the dental strategy, we shall need to study a range of mechanisms to ensure that people can access NHS dentistry. I agree with my hon. Friend that the problem is not always greatest in inner-city areas, where the task will be to persuade more of the population to register with the dentists who are available. We will need to come up with proposals that fit a wide variety of circumstances across the country.
Mr. Ian Bruce (South Dorset):
I am sure that the Minister will know that there has been a large drop in the number of people registered with NHS dentists since the Government came to power. A dental strategy must be based on people having regular check-ups, which people are not having because they are not registered with NHS dentists. What is the Minister going to do about that?
Mr. Denham:
There was a drop in the number of registrations because the registration period was shortened. The people who did not re-register were those who did not visit their dentists regularly in that period. As I said earlier, the number of NHS dentists is greater than two years ago, as is the number of treatments carried out under NHS dentistry. However, we are not complacent: as I have acknowledged several times this afternoon,
GP Funding
14. Mr. Chris Mullin (Sunderland, South): What plans he has to review the funding arrangements for GPs; and if he will make a statement. [88251]
The Minister of State, Department of Health (Mr. John Denham): We have established the equity in primary care working group, whose membership includes representatives from the general practices committee of the British Medical Association, health authorities, the medical practices committee and the NHS executive. Its task is to consider the equitable distribution of work force and resources in general practice. I expect to receive its recommendations shortly.
Mr. Mullin: In so far as I understand the funding arrangements for GPs, they are ring-fenced and cannot be used to employ GPs on a salaried basis, for example. One effect of that is that places such as Sunderland--which has difficulty attracting its full quota of GPs--effectively subsidise places such as Buckinghamshire. Does my hon. Friend consider that to be satisfactory? If not, will something be done about it?
Mr. Denham: I personally have nothing at all against Buckinghamshire, but my hon. Friend raises an important point. It is not possible simply to take money notionally allocated to pay a GP under the general medical services budget and reallocate it to a different use. However, health authorities can use the personal medical pilot scheme to create positions for salaried doctors, as well as to vary, by agreement, the contractual arrangements with GPs. I know that Sunderland is keen to use that mechanism to deal with the shortage of GPs.
It is also worth stating that recruitment difficulties are not the only problem, including in Sunderland. Some GPs with large lists are reluctant to advertise for partners, for example. We need to address a range of matters with health authorities if we are to tackle the problems that my hon. Friend raises.
Mr. Stephen Dorrell (Charnwood):
Might not the Minister also have referred to low rates of recruitment into general practice from among medical students? Is he satisfied with the number who go on to train as GPs, and if he is not, what will he do about it?
Mr. Denham:
I am pleased that the latest national GP recruitment figures are encouraging. A 7.7 per cent. increase in GP registrars shows that many medical students see general practice as an important and fulfilling career. We shall train more medical students, and we announced nearly 800 additional places last week. I am confident that many students will go into general practice as they see our reforms putting GPs and nurses in the driving seat in the new NHS.
Private Health Care
15. Miss Melanie Johnson (Welwyn Hatfield): What plans he has to introduce new regulations covering private health care. [88252]
The Secretary of State for Health (Mr. Frank Dobson): On 15 June we published a consultation document, "Regulating Private and Voluntary Healthcare", in which we have proposed a new body with tough powers to regulate private hospitals and to replace the archaic system that currently treats private hospitals as nursing homes.
Miss Johnson: I welcome my right hon. Friend's reply and the consultation, which builds on work done by people such as my constituent Caroline Buckley, who lost her mother tragically under private health care, and the many bereaved and troubled relatives concerned by the state of the private health care industry. Who does my right hon. Friend believe should foot the bill for the regulation of private health care? Should it be the NHS, as the Opposition believe, or should the industry foot the bill itself?
Mr. Dobson: We propose that the private health care industry should pay the costs of its regulation, and I can safely say that we have the Treasury's wholehearted support.
Dr. Julian Lewis (New Forest, East): Will the Secretary of State consider my eight-year-old constituent, Laura Giddings, who lost her leg in the Planet Hollywood explosion and who, as I have said before, has been forced to turn to the private sector to obtain a suitable artificial limb? In drawing up new regulations for the private sector, will he consider applying to artificial limbs the criteria applied to wheelchairs so that someone who has to go to the private sector for a suitable appliance will receive the money that would have been spent on a less suitable appliance by the NHS?
Mr. Dobson: I express sympathy for the little girl and her family. The family have met my right hon. Friend the Minister for Public Health, and I am prepared to consider any arrangement that would facilitate the little girl's being able to get about as well as humanity can manage now that inhumanity has deprived her of her leg.
Mr. David Hinchliffe (Wakefield): Has my right hon. Friend been able to study the work of Dr. John Yates at Birmingham university, which proves that areas of the country with the highest number of private beds also seem to have the longest NHS waiting lists? Has he had a chance to consider that matter, and if so, what action are the Government taking?
Mr. Dobson: Yes, I have and the Select Committee on Health, which is chaired by my hon. Friend, is studying
that and other matters related to the regulation of the private sector. I look forward to receiving its report and considering it along with the other representations that we receive in response to our consultation document.Alzheimer's Disease
16. Mr. Shaun Woodward (Witney): What assessment he has made of the impact of the closure of Burford hospital on the treatment of Alzheimer's disease in west Oxfordshire. [88253]
The Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Health (Mr. John Hutton): My right hon. Friend the Secretary of State instructed officials at the south-east regional office of the NHS executive to facilitate further discussions about the proposals to reconfigure community services in Oxfordshire. While no decisions have yet been taken, should the Secretary of State decide to support the health authority's decision on the reconfiguration, the authority is committed to consider the relocation of the specialist Alzheimer's disease service that is provided at Burford community hospital.
Mr. Woodward: The Minister will be aware that this is national Alzheimer's awareness week. He will also be aware that the Secretary of State has now had nearly an entire year to consider the future of Burford community hospital. The Royal College of Nursing report on Alzheimer's found that the Burford unit was top of 75 units throughout the country in the pioneering work that it did. The report went on to say that if we are to take Alzheimer's work seriously,
- "it is vital that the parent service continues at its present location."
Mr. Hutton: I reassure the hon. Gentleman that we certainly take Alzheimer's disease seriously. In fact, as he will be aware, the publication of the national carers' strategy, which will help significantly the carers of people with the disease, has been widely welcomed. He will also probably be aware that, next year, the new national service framework for the NHS will be for older people. We are looking within the context of that framework to define new service models and national standards for the treatment of Alzheimer's disease. I am sure that he will welcome that.
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