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1 Sep 2008 : Column 1767W—continued
The numbers quoted are headcounts and do not differentiate between full-time and part-time dentists,
nor do they account for the fact that some dentists may do more NHS work than others.
The methodology for counting and reporting the NHS dental workforce is currently under review. The review, led by analysts at the NHS Information Centre and the statistical directorate of the Welsh Assembly Government, working in liaison with the Dental Services Division of the NHS Business Services Authority, aims to ensure that following the first year of the new dental contractual arrangements, the figures provide an appropriate measure of the workforce.
The consultation stage of this review ended on 11 July 2008. The intention is to publish workforce data in the ‘NHS Dental Statistics for England, 2007-08’ report, due to be published by the NHS Information Centre on 21 August 2008.
Until then the workforce data provided in the ‘NHS Dental Statistics for England: 2006-07’ report will remain the latest available.
| GPs (excluding retainers and registrars) by selected area in England in 1997, 2002 and 2007 | ||||
| Number (headcount) | ||||
| 1997 | 2002 | 2007 | ||
| (1 )Not available Notes: 1. Berkshire consists of Berkshire East Teaching PCT and Berkshire West PCT in 2007 and the following PCTs in 2002: Slough PCT, Bracknell Forest PCT, Windsor, Ascot and Maidenhead PCT, Newbury and Community PCT, Reading PCT and Wokingham PCT. Prior to this, in 1997, there was Berkshire HA and no lower level breakdown available. 2. GP Data is available by SHA and PCT only, there are no GPs recorded in Acute Trusts or Ambulance Trusts on the GP Census Collection. This, as well as part-mergers of trust boundaries in recent years, can make comparability difficult between GP Data, non-medical staff data and medical and dental workforce data over a time-series at local trust level. | ||||
NHS: Private Sector
Mr. Burstow: To ask the Secretary of State for Health what guidance his Department provides to primary care trusts on contingency plans if private sector service suppliers to the NHS enter financial difficulties. [219331]
Mr. Bradshaw: The Department is introducing new standard contracts for national health service funded care to be used by Primary Care Trusts (PCT) for the services they commission from all types of provider, whether private or public. The contracts require private sector providers to have in place service continuity plans to ensure the continued availability of those services identified by PCTs as essential, in the event of any disruption of the provider’s ability to provide them.
Mr. Lansley: To ask the Secretary of State for Health (1) pursuant to the answer to the hon. Member for Guildford of 16 June 2008, Official Report, column 763W, on NHS: private sector, what his definition of a complete package of care is; [221438]
(2) pursuant to the answer to the hon. Member for Guildford of 16 June 2008, Official Report, column 763W, on NHS: private sector, what definition of an episode of care is used for the purposes of collecting information in the Hospital Episodes Statistics database. [221632]
Mr. Bradshaw: There is no formal definition of ‘a complete package of care’.
Generally, the definition of an ‘episode of care’ is a judgment made locally by clinicians and the local national health service. In terms of collecting information for the Hospital Episode Statistics, the main unit of data collection is referred to as the ‘finished consultant episode’. The finished consultant episode is defined as a period of admitted patient care under a consultant or allied health care professional within an NHS trust.
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