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Dr. Vis: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department what the average length of stay for sentenced juveniles in each young offender institution was in the last period for which figures are available. [897]
Fiona Mactaggart: The average length of stay per episode for a sample of sentenced prisoners aged under 18 who were discharged in 2003, as recorded on the Prison Service IT system, is provided in the table.
13. Jonathan Shaw: To ask the Secretary of State for Health if she will make a statement on in-patient waiting times. [3681]
Ms Hewitt:
The NHS is continuing to make huge progress in providing faster access to hospital care. In 1997, 284,000 patients were waiting more than six months for operations; that number has now been reduced to 45,400 and by the end of the year it will be reduced to zero.
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22. Ms Barlow: To ask the Secretary of State for Health if she will make a statement on the number of patients waiting over 13 weeks for an out-patient appointment. [3690]
Mr. Byrne: There are now 30,222 patients referred by their GP who are waiting more than 13 weeks for their outpatient consultation, compared with 338,957 in June 1997. The NHS is on track to ensure that no patients are waiting more than 13 weeks by the end of 2005.
14. Michael Fabricant: To ask the Secretary of State for Health if she will make a statement on the progress of construction of the new hospital in Lichfield. [3682]
Caroline Flint: Work is currently under way for the provision of a new hospital to serve the residents of Lichfield and Burntwood. The new hospital will be located on the old St. Michael's hospital site in Lichfield and is scheduled for completion in winter 2006, receiving its first patients early in 2007.
16. Mr. Jack: To ask the Secretary of State for Health if she will make a statement on the availability of accident and emergency consultants in Lancashire. [3684]
Mr. Byrne: Within the Cumbria and Lancashire Strategic Health Authority area, the national health service trusts in Lancashire have a total of 17 accident and emergency consultants as at December 2004. The most recent centrally held information on vacancy rates indicated that in March 2004 there were two vacancies which trusts were actively trying to fill, which had lasted for three months or more.
17. Mr. Robathan: To ask the Secretary of State for Health what proportion of residents in the South Leicestershire primary care trust area are registered with an NHS dentist. [3685]
Ms Rosie Winterton: At the end of March this year, there were 80,979 people registered with a dentist in the South Leicestershire Primary Care Trust area, which equates to 47.5 per cent. of the population.
Sir Paul Beresford: To ask the Secretary of State for Health if she will make a statement on the NHS dental patient charges review. [3683]
Ms Rosie Winterton: A Dental Charges Working Group, led by Harry Cayton, the Department of Health's Director for Patients and the Public, submitted proposals for a new system of dental charges to the Department last year. These proposals are being considered alongside information about the effects of the new pilot dentists' contracts on treatment patterns.
Sir Paul Beresford: To ask the Secretary of State forHealth what plans she has to establish better working relations between private dentistry and NHS dentistry. [2768]
Ms Rosie Winterton:
[holding answer 9 June]: In March 2003, the Office of Fair Trading published a report of a market investigation, The private dentistry
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market in the UK", in response to a super-complaint from the Consumers Association. The report's main conclusion, which we accepted, was that consumers need better information to make properly informed choices about which dentists and treatments will best meet their needs. We have been working with the General Dental Council (GDC) on implementation of the report's recommendations. The GDC has just published a new version of its ethical guidance, Standards for Dental Professionals", which includes the requirement that dentists give full information on proposed treatments and possible costs. In addition, the Dentists Act 1984 Amendment Order 2005, which was laid before Parliament on 25 May, includes a power for the GDC to establish a new private complaints system to investigate and resolve complaints from patients who have received private dental treatment including instances where patients have not been given a well-informed choice between national health service and private treatment.
Sir Paul Beresford: To ask the Secretary of State for Health what mechanisms are in place to ensure there is (a) co-ordination and (b) no duplication between the work of Methods Consulting and individual primary care trusts in recruiting dentists from Poland. [2769]
Ms Rosie Winterton [holding answer 9 June 2005]: Methods Consulting, on behalf of the Department, only recruit dentists from Poland to posts submitted by strategic health authorities to the Department and subsequently approved as suitable for international recruitment.
Sir Paul Beresford: To ask the Secretary of State for Health how many Polish dentists are practising in England as a result of the Department's central recruitment programme; and how many of those are working in the (a) General Dental Service, (b) Personal Dental Service, (c) Community Dental Service and (d) Hospital Dental Service. [2771]
Ms Rosie Winterton [holding answer 9 June 2005]: 114 Polish dentists are practising in England as a result of the Department's central recruitment programme.
All of these dentists are working under a personal dental service (PDS) contract. 108 are working in PDS pilots and six are based in the community dental service. None of the dentists work under a general dental services contract or are employed in the hospital dental service.
Mr. Hollobone: To ask the Secretary of State for Health what steps she is taking to ensure adequate provision of NHS dentistry in the Kettering constituency; and if she will make a statement. [4169]
Ms Rosie Winterton: Northamptonshire Heartlands Primary Care Trust (PCT) has been allocated £298,000 to improve access to national health service dentistry, and plans to use these resources to provide more than 17,000 additional NHS dental patient registrations.
A dental access centre (DAC) has been opened in Corby to provide NHS urgent treatment to patients who are not registered with a dentist. One Polish dentist has been recruited to work at the DAC and a further four dentists from Poland will be starting work in the PCT area later this year.
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Mr. Chope: To ask the Secretary of State for Health on what date the Clayton Report on NHS dental charges was (a) commissioned and (b) delivered to her Department; and on what date it will be published. [4562]
Ms Rosie Winterton: A dental charges working group, led by Harry Cayton, the Department's Director for Patients and the Public, was commissioned in June 2003 to consider and make proposals for a revised system of dental charges. The report on the group's work was submitted to the Department in March 2004. The group's findings are being considered alongside information about the effects of the new pilot dental contracts on treatment patterns. The written ministerial statement in January indicated that we would be consulting on a new system of dental charges in the summer. The Cayton report will be made available when we begin consultation on the draft charges regulations.
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