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NHS Dentistry

Volume 454: debated on Wednesday 6 December 2006

To ask the Secretary of State for Health how many full-time equivalent NHS general dental practitioners there are in York; and how many there were in each of the last two years. (102362)

Full-time equivalent information on the national health services dental work force is not centrally available. However, the numbers of NHS dentists has been provided in the following table.

Number of dentists on open NHS contracts in Selby and York primary care trust (PCT) as at 31 March 2004-06 and 30 June 2006

Number

31 March:

2004

129

2005

134

2006

146

30 June:

2006

108

Notes:

1. Information as at 30 June 2006 is based on the new NHS dental contractual arrangements between providers and PCTs which was introduced on 1 April 2006. Data prior to this are based on the old dental contractual arrangements between principal dentists and PCTs and therefore, are not directly comparable.

2. Most NHS dentists do some private work. Figures provided do not take into account the proportion of NHS work undertaken by dentists.

3. Figures for the numbers of dentists at specified dates may vary depending on the date the figures are compiled. This is because the NHS BSA may be notified of joiners or leavers up to several months, or more, after the move has taken place. Information is up to date as at 21 November 2006.

Sources:

1. The Information Centre for health and social care

2. NHS Business Services Authority (BSA)

To ask the Secretary of State for Health how much was spent on NHS general dental services in York and Selby in (a) cash and (b) real terms in each of the last five years. (102363)

The main element of national health service dental services in previous years were the primary dental care services provided by dentists working within the general dental service (GDS), or personal dental service (PDS) pilots. The following tables display the readily available data on expenditure on these services in the Selby and York primary care trust area. The difference between gross and net expenditure is the contribution to costs from dental charges collected directly from patients. Note that data on PDS expenditure are only available from 2004-05 onwards.

New local commissioning arrangements for primary dental care were introduced from 1 April 2006.

GDS and PDS dental payments within Selby and York PCT (£ million. cash terms)1,2,3,4

2001-02

2002-03

2003-04

2004-05

2005-06

Gross GDS

8.908

9.439

9.792

7.617

3.510

Net GDS

5.625

5.867

6.273

5.041

2.644

Gross PDS

n/a

n/a

n/a

2.390

8.035

Net PDS

n/a

n/a

n/a

1.927

6.282

Gross GDS and PDS

8.908

9.439

9.792

10.007

11.545

Net GDS and PDS

5.625

5.867

6.273

6.968

8.926

1 Gross GDS payments include adult fees (including item of service and continuing care payments), child fees (including item of service and capitation payments), commitment payments and point of treatment check payment training (in 2001 only), seniority payments, maternity/paternity/adoptive leave payments, long term sick leave payments, continuing professional development allowances including travel hours, reimbursement of business rates, vocational training grants and clinical audit payments. The following costs are excluded from this data: employer’s superannuation costs, vocational trainee salaries and NI contribution costs, clinical audit convenors, clinical audit secretarial support costs and travel expenses, and costs associated with any salaried general dental practitioners and emergency dental services.

2 PDS payment data are included from 2004-05 onwards only and relate to baseline payments or the agreed regular monthly payments made to PDS practices. Reliable PDS data at practice level are not available prior to 2004-05. The data cannot identify the cost of any PDS services that are directly managed by local NHS trusts, such as certain dental access centres.

3 Payments are assigned to areas on the basis of practice postcode data.

4 Net payments represent the balance of payments due after taking account of NHS dental charge income collected from patients by dental practices.

GDS and PDS dental payments within Selby and York PCT (£ million. at 2005-06 prices)1

2001-02

2002-03

2003-04

2004-05

2005-06

Gross GDS

9.901

10.178

10.254

7.761

3.510

Net GDS

6.253

6.326

6.568

5.137

2.644

Gross PDS

n/a

n/a

n/a

2.436

8.035

Net PDS

n/a

n/a

n/a

1.964

6.282

Gross GDS and PDS

9.901

10.178

10.254

10.197

11.545

Net GDS and PDS

6.253

6.326

6.568

7.101

8.926

1 Figures have been converted into 2005-06 prices using the September 2006 GDP deflator index.

To ask the Secretary of State for Health how many (a) adult and (b) child patients are registered with a NHS general dental practice in York and Selby; and how many were registered at six monthly intervals over the last five years. (102364)

The information requested is set out in the following table.

General dental services (GDS) and personal dental services (PDS): Patient registrations, by child and adult in Selby and York Primary Care Trust (PCT) as at 31 March and 30 September each year between 2001-06

Adults

Children

2001

March

107,829

42,276

September

109,027

42,130

2002

March

110,148

41,783

September

110,430

41,247

2003

March

113,355

41,966

September

126,294

45,373

2004

March

117,127

43,230

September

93,248

35,999

2005

March

111,872

42,641

September

105,597

40,808

2006

March

109,539

42,932

Notes:

1. The postcode of the dental practice was used to allocate dentists to specific geographic areas. PCT areas have been defined using the Office for National Statistics all fields postcode directory.

2. Dentists consist of principals, assistant and trainees. Information on NHS dentistry in the community dental service, in hospitals and in prisons is excluded.

3. The data in this report are based on national health service dentists on PCT lists. These details were passed on to the Business Services Authority (BSA) who paid dentists based on activity undertaken. A dentist can provide as little or as much NHS treatment as he or she chooses or has agreed with the PCT. In some cases an NHS dentist may appear on a PCT list but not perform any NHS work in that period. Most NHS dentists do some private work. The data do not take into account the proportion of NHS work undertaken by dentists.

4. PDS schemes had varying registration periods. To ensure comparability with corresponding GDS data, PDS registrations are estimated using “proxy registrations”, namely the number of patients seen by PDS practices in the previous 15 months. PDS proxy registrations were not estimated for periods before September 2003—actual registrations were used before this date.

5. Data for 2003 and earlier do not include those PDS schemes that do not have any registrations, eg dental access centres, and are therefore not directly comparable with later data.

To ask the Secretary of State for Health what estimate was made of the likely income from NHS dental charges in Northumberland for 2006-07; and how much income has been received to date. (102474)

The primary dental service resource allocation for 2006-07 for the Northumberland care trust as at 31 July 2006 is set out in the following table. This excludes any additional resources that may be distributed by the NHS North East specifically to fund any individual dental vocational trainee postings.

Northumberland care trust

Amount (£)

Gross budget

13,910,210

Expected patient charge income

5,210,043

Net allocation1

8,700,000

1 Rounded to nearest thousand.

Actual levels of charge income will depend on a range of variables including the service levels, i.e. the annual units of dental activity, agreed for each local contract with dentists and the relative proportions of chargeable and non-chargeable treatments carried out during the year. The in-year management and monitoring of these allocations is the responsibility of the individual primary care trusts.