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20 Dec 2004 : Column 1467W—continued
Dentistry
Dr. Murrison: To ask the Secretary of State for Health how many dentists he expects to recruit from (a) Poland, (b) Germany, (c) Denmark and (d) Spain in 2004–05. [202276]
Ms Rosie Winterton: The Department intends to recruit approximately 230 dentists from its recruitment in Poland. No firm estimates have yet been made of recruitment from Germany, Spain and Denmark. In addition, some primary care trusts carry out recruitment activity themselves.
Dr. Murrison: To ask the Secretary of State for Health if he will list the recruitment agencies used to recruit dentists from (a) Poland, (b) Germany, (c) Denmark and (d) Spain; and what the cost of using them has been. [202278]
Ms Rosie Winterton:
No recruitment agencies have been used to recruit dentists apart from Poland, where a contract was placed with Methods Consulting. The value of this contract is £3.8 million for recruitment of dentists from Poland.
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Miss McIntosh: To ask the Secretary of State for Health what proportion of dentists' time was spent on NHS work on (a) 1 April 1990, (b) 1 April 1997 and (c) 1 April 2004. [201039]
Ms Rosie Winterton: The available information is in Appendix E of the supplement to the thirtieth report 2001 of the "Review Body on Doctors' and Dentists' Remuneration"—Cm 4999.
In table 89, in March 2000, mean hours per week of a general dental practitioner on general dental service (CDS)—national health service—work were 25.13 hours, with 7.91 hours on private practice and with 1.16 hours shared time. GDS time as a percentage of GDS time and private practice time in March 2000 was 76 per cent.
A 1991 workload survey gave GDS time of 26.43 hours and private time of 2.5 hours, with 3.02 hours shared time. The GDS time as a percentage of GDS time and private practice time in 1991 was 91 per cent.
We are to introduce new contractual arrangements for NHS dentistry from October 2005, which are intended to make NHS dentistry more attractive to dentists. One of the main changes is the replacement of the treatment-based, item-of-service method of paying dentists with a remuneration package derived from an evidence-based assessment of patients' overall oral health care needs. This will enable dentists to spend more time with their patients and reward them for giving oral health promotion advice.
Mr. Gordon Prentice: To ask the Secretary of State for Health how many NHS dentists moved to entirely private practice in each month of the latest year for which figures are available. [204081]
Ms Rosie Winterton: The Department only collects information on national health service dentistry and therefore no information can be provided for private dentistry. Relatively few dentists practise totally privately. The Office of Fair Trading report, "The private dentistry market in the UK", published in March 2003, estimated that out of 11,000 dental practices, about 210 are totally private.
Mr. Walter: To ask the Secretary of State for Health how many dental practices are operating in North Dorset constituency; and how many of those practices are accepting new adult patients. [204869]
Ms Rosie Winterton [holding answer 16 December 2004]: The nhs.uk website shows 13 general and personal dental service practices in North Dorset Primary Care Trust (PCT) at 10 December 2O04.
The number of general and personal dental service practices shown on the nhs.uk website as accepting new adult national health service patients in North Dorset PCT is shown in the table. This is given at 10 December 2004.
Some dental practices not shown on the nhs.uk website as taking on new patients may be doing so.
| Number of practices | |
|---|---|
| Registering charge exempt adults for NHS treatment | 2 |
| Registering charge paying adults for NHS treatment | 1 |
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Tom Cox: To ask the Secretary of State for Health what the average annual payment made by the NHS to a dentist working full-time, and with a wholly NHS patient list, was in each of the last three years. [201850]
Ms Rosie Winterton: Information on private working of national health service dentists is not routinely available.
The average annual payment in 2003–04 to general dental service (CDS) dentists was £150,000 to dentists with a reasonable commitment to the GDS. Dentists with a reasonable commitment are defined as dentists earning at least £57,300 in fees for treatments and patient capitation.
The corresponding annual average payments in 2001–02 and 2002–03 were £136,000 and £143,000 respectively. The payment figures cover both fees for treatments and patient capitation as well as other payments, such as seniority payments and commitment payments and payments for maternity and sickness. The payments cover both income to the dentists as well as their expenses.
Mr. Crausby: To ask the Secretary of State for Health what steps he has taken to improve NHS dental provision in Bolton, North-East. [203363]
Ms Rosie Winterton: Bolton Primary Care Trust (PCT) received £207,000 in 2004–05 from dental modernisation funds for one-off payment grants. This allocation will enable the primary care trust to invest in primary care premises and facilities to improve dental access and quality.
In addition, Bolton PCT received £89,000 from a national distribution of £15 million to primary care trusts for local access initiatives to support access, quality and choice.
A further £30,000 was allocated to Bolton PCT specifically to modernise its salaried dental services in preparation for the move to the model of primary dental care services in 2005. This dental access funding allocated to Bolton PCT will facilitate an increase in primary dental provision for an additional 4,137 patients.
There have also been successful negotiations with 19 dental practices to provisionally move to personal dental services and it is expected that a number of these will be in place by early 2005. These new contacts plan for a further significant growth in new patient registrations.
Andrew George: To ask the Secretary of State for Health how many NHS registered dentists there were in (a) St. Ives constituency and (b) Cornwall in each of the past 10 years for which records are available. [205001]
Ms Rosie Winterton
[holding answer 15 December 2004]: The number of general and personal dental service dentists in the Cornwall area by primary care trust at June each year from 1995 to 2004 is shown in the table.
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Notes:
1. PCTs took responsibility for dental services from October 2002. Therefore, for the dates in the table up to 2002, dentists are assigned to areas using practice postcodes. The personal dental service affects the figures from June 1999 onwards; some dentists in the personal dental service switched from other national health service dental services.
2. Dentists working in more than one PCT are counted in each PCT where they do dental work.
Source:
Dental Practice Board.
Mr. Jim Cunningham: To ask the Secretary of State for Health how many NHS dentists have practices in the Coventry area; and what steps are being taken to recruit more dentists to the area. [201814]
Ms Rosie Winterton [holding answer 7 December 2004]: At 30 November 2004, there were 43 general dental service practices within the Coventry Primary Care Trust (PCT) area.
Coventry PCT is taking an active part in the Department's international recruitment campaign. A dentist from Poland is expected to commence work in Coventry in February 2005. This new dentist is expected to result in an additional 2,000 patients being registered over a period of 12 months. Two further posts have been offered to Polish dentists.
The PCT is continuing to participate in the campaign. The PCT recruited a dental practice advisor in November 2004 to offer support to dental practices. The PCT is also recruiting a new consultant in dental public health, to start work early in 2005, to assist in the development of dentistry in Coventry.
As part of the personal dental services (PDS) scheme, Coventry PCT is looking to increase list sizes in the areas of greatest need and to offer services to hard to reach communities and care homes.
West Midlands South Strategic Health Authority reports that the PCT is currently in discussions with eleven of its practices around the PDS scheme. One practice has already signed up to the scheme. The others are currently being processed. The PCT is hoping to gain an additional five—part-time national health service—dentists as part of these discussions.
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13 practices in the area have been awarded capital grants as a means of improving access to NHS services for patients.
Overall, Coventry PCT is expecting to see an increase of 4,500 places on dental practice lists over the next 12 months.
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