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Health Inequalities
Mr. Neil Turner: To ask the Secretary of State for Health if he will make a statement on progress to address health inequalities by changes to the funding formulae for health authorities/primary care trusts. [43738]
Yvette Cooper: The Government have made good progress. An interim health inequalities adjustment of #130 million was introduced for 2001–02 allocations. This has been extended to #148 million for 2002–03, to be shared between 54 Health Authorities. The Government are also reviewing the existing weighted capitation formula used to distribute NHS funding. By 2003 reducing inequalities will be a key criterion for allocating NHS resources to different parts of the country.
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Ambulance Service
Mr. Heath: To ask the Secretary of State for Health what the average response time was for the attendance of an emergency ambulance over the last 12 months in each English region. [43739]
Ms Blears: Latest provisional management information indicates that, at the end of February 2002, 28 out of the 32 ambulance trusts in England were achieving the Government's key target of responding to 75 per cent. of immediately life threatening 999 calls within eight minutes.
All ambulance trusts are expected to achieve the 75 per cent. target during 2002.
Booked Hospital Admissions
Mr. Rammell: To ask the Secretary of State for Health if he will make a statement on progress in achieving booked admissions across the NHS. [43740]
Mr. Hutton: The National Booked Admissions Programme began in 1998. Every acute NHS trust is now booking patients in at least two specialties or high volume procedures. By the end of March 2002 more than five million patients will have benefited from the programme.
A fourth wave of the programme, XMoving to Mainstream", began in September 2001 and will shift booked admissions to mainstream NHS activity.
Nurse Recruitment (London)
Ann Keen: To ask the Secretary of State for Health what the latest figures for nurse recruitment in London were in the last 12 months. [43741]
Mr. Hutton: As at September 2001, there were 58,000 qualified nurses, midwives and health visitors working within the London Region—an increase of 3,400 compared to September the previous year. In London over 660 qualified nurses midwives and health visitors have returned to the NHS since April 2001. There are currently a further 124 nurses and midwives undertaking special training, who will return to the NHS shortly.
School Free Fruit Scheme
Joyce Quin: To ask the Secretary of State for Health if he will make a statement on the free fruit scheme in schools. [43742]
Yvette Cooper: The National School Fruit Scheme will entitle every four to six year old with a free piece of fruit each school day from 2004. #42 million from the New Opportunities Fund is enabling the rapid expansion of the Scheme across England. This starts in West Midlands next term reaching 250,000 children in over 2,000 schools.
Dentistry
David Taylor: To ask the Secretary of State for Health what assessment he has made of the access to NHS dental treatment for the residents of north-west Leicestershire; and if he will make a statement. [43745]
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Yvette Cooper: Figures are not collected by constituency but as of 31 January 2002, General Dental Service registration rates for Leicestershire were: adults—45 per cent. (England 43 per cent.); children—63 per cent. (England 60 per cent.).
NHS dentistry registrations were 463,074—up 3,666 on the previous year. Ninety eight per cent. of the population was within a five mile (urban) or 10 mile (rural) radius of dentists accepting new patients. Everyone was within 15 miles of an NHS dentist.
The number of GDS dentists in Leicestershire as of 31 December 2001 was 284 compared with 282 the previous year.
Mrs. Brooke: To ask the Secretary of State for Health what assistance he is giving to support NHS dentistry in Dorset. [43752]
Ms Blears: In 2000–01, Dorset Health Authority (HA) was awarded #110,000 from the Dental Care Development Fund. In 2001–02, the HA allocation for the Modernisation Fund was #458,900. The HA has also been allocated #37,000 from the Dentistry Action Plan Fund.
Mr. Laws: To ask the Secretary of State for Health (1) what percentage of dentists on health authority lists practise full time in the NHS; [44410]
- (2) what percentage of dentists on the Government Dental Council register (a) practise in the General Dental Service full time in the UK and (b) practise in the General Dental Service full time for the NHS in the UK. [44412]
(3) what percentage of dentists on the General Dental Council who qualified outside the United Kingdom and who have been on the Health Authority General Dental Service lists within the last 10 years are no longer on the Health Authority lists; [44405]
(4) what percentage of dentists on the General Dental Council Register who qualified outside the United Kingdom and who are on the Health Authority General Dental Service lists have been on these lists for over five years; [44406]
(5) what the ratio is of new dentists who have qualified from UK dental schools to dentists who are drawing their NHS pension; and if he will list this ratio for each of the previous 20 years; [44408]
(6) what percentage of dentists on the General Dental Council Register qualified outside the United Kingdom; and of this number, what percentage are on the Health Authority General Dental Service lists; [44407]
(7) what the ratio was of male to female new dental graduates from UK dental schools (a) last year and (b) for each of the previous 20 years. [44411]
Ms Blears [holding answer 21 March 2002]: Dentists on health authority lists are self-employed principal dentists. They do not have a standard working week and can vary their working hours.
The Office of Manpower Economics carried out a survey of principal dentists in Great Britain in March 2000. They reported that 81 per cent. of dentists describe themselves as full-time and 19 per cent. are part-time.
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Twenty per cent. of all principal dentists are both full-time and also work fully in the NHS. A further 5 per cent. are part-time and work fully in the NHS.
Dentists who work as assistants and vocational dental practitioners are not covered by this result because Health Authorities are not required to hold lists for them.
Dentists on health authority lists are self-employed principal dentists. They do not have a standard working week and can vary their working hours.
In March 2000 the Office of Manpower Economics (OME) carried out a survey into the hours of work and workload of principal dentists taking any part in the General Dental Service (GDS) in Great Britain.
The survey found that 81 per cent of principals in the GDS considered themselves as carrying out dental work full-time. This would be equivalent to about 16,158 of the 19,948 principals in the GDS in the UK at 31 December 2001. The survey found that one quarter of full-time principals spent 100 per cent. of their time on GDS work. This would be equivalent to 4,040 principals at December 2001.
Thirty one thousand five hundred and seventy seven dentists were on the General Dental Council (GDC) Register at 1 January 2002. Sixteen thousand one hundred and fifty eight principals estimated to be doing dental work full-time are equivalent to 51 per cent. of the GDC total. The 4,040 principals estimated to be doing dental work full-time and spending 100 per cent. of their time in the GDS are equivalent to 13 per cent. of the GDC total.
These percentages will exclude dentists working part-time or as assistants or vocational dental practitioners or dentists working in other dental services and dentists not working.
Forty four per cent. of principal dentists who qualified outside the United Kingdom and have worked in the General Dental Service (GDS) in England within the last 10 years were not on a health authority list at 31 December 2001.
Dentists who work as assistants and vocational dental practitioners are not covered by this result because health authorities are not required to hold lists for them.
Ninety one per cent. of principal dentists on a Health Authority list who qualified outside the United Kingdom have worked in the General Dental Service (GDS) in England for more than five years as at 31 December 2001.
Dentists who work as assistants and vocational dental practitioners are not covered by this result because Health Authorities are not required to hold lists for them.
The ratio of students obtaining their first registrable dental qualification from UK dental schools to the number of dentists retiring from the General Dental Service for each of the years 1983 to 2000 is shown in the table.
The retirement information is from Pension Agency records. The date of retirement may be the actual date of retirement or the date a pension was awarded or the last date on the Agency's computer systems. Some
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retiring dentists may not have held a General Dental Service (GDS) post on retirement e.g. they may have retired from a consultant post.
| Year | Number of qualifiers1 | Number of retirements | Ratio of qualifiers to retirements |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1983 | 811 | 103 | 7.9 |
| 1984 | 887 | 127 | 7.0 |
| 1985 | 845 | 286 | 3.0 |
| 1986 | 748 | 332 | 2.3 |
| 1987 | 729 | 385 | 1.9 |
| 1988 | 807 | 345 | 2.3 |
| 1989 | 771 | 376 | 2.1 |
| 1990 | 759 | 348 | 2.2 |
| 1991 | 795 | 399 | 2.0 |
| 1992 | 744 | 433 | 1.7 |
| 1993 | 783 | 532 | 1.5 |
| 1994 | 730 | 360 | 2.0 |
| 1995 | 649 | 366 | 1.8 |
| 1996 | 650 | 329 | 2.0 |
| 1997 | 722 | 358 | 2.0 |
| 1998 | 768 | 327 | 2.3 |
| 1999 | 782 | 321 | 2.4 |
| 2000 | 808 | 306 | 2.6 |
Notes:
1 The number of qualifiers between 1983 and 1989 were recorded on a slightly different basis to later data.
Sources:
Higher Education Funding Council for England and Pensions Agency.
Fifteen per cent. or 4,643 of the 31,577 dentists registered with the General Dental Council (GDC) at 1 January 2002 qualified from dental schools outside the United Kingdom.
At 31 December 2001 2,094 dentists who had qualified outside the UK were on health authority lists in the General Dental Service (GDS) in England. This represents 45 per cent. of the 4,643 dentists who had qualified outside the UK who were registered with the GDC as of 1 January 2002. Health authority lists cover principal dentists only and exclude assistant dentists and vocational dental practitioners working in the GDS.
Information on the number of dentists who had qualified outside the UK and are practising in the GDS in Scotland, Wales or Northern Ireland can be obtained from the relevant devolved administrations.
The number of male and female students who have obtained their first registrable dental qualification from UK dental schools is shown in the table for each of the academic years 1989–90 to 2000–01. Also shown is the ratio of male to female graduates.
The information is not available for the years before 1989–90.
Source: Higher Education Funding Council for England
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Mr. Laws: To ask the Secretary of State for Health what percentage of dentists registered on the General Dental Council are (a) resident in the UK and (b) registered at an address in the UK. [44413]
Ms Blears [holding 21 March 2002]: No information is available on the place of residence of dentists registered with the General Dental Council (GDC).
The country of the registered address of dentists on the GDC register at 1 January 2002 is shown in the table.
| Country | Number of dentists | Percentage of registered dentists |
|---|---|---|
| England1 | 24,523 | 78 |
| Scotland | 2,761 | 9 |
| Wales | 1,301 | 4 |
| Northern Ireland | 1,058 | 3 |
| UK total | 29,643 | 94 |
| Overseas | 1,934 | 6 |
| Total | 31,577 | 100 |
1 England figures include dentists registered at addresses in the Isle of Man and the Channel Islands
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