Primary care trusts are responsible for commissioning dental care services to reflect local needs and priorities. This includes commissioning appropriate dental care, such as domiciliary services, for patients with special needs.
The information has been placed in the Library.
Activity reported in the first few months of the new dental contracts was significantly affected by the time-lags between dentists completing courses of treatment, dentists reporting courses of treatment to the NHS Business Services Authority (BSA), and the BSA processing these data. These time lags will also have varied between primary care trusts (PCTs) depending on the BSA schedule group to which they belong.
Minus figures may appear due to adjustments that may be made to the previous months data.
Sources:
The Information Centre for health and social care NHS Business Services Authority (BSA)
The information requested is as follows.
Old contract
Adults Children 1997 106,119 39,220 1998 109,152 41,916 1999 103,319 42,260 2000 104,489 42,040 2001 107,829 42,276 2002 110,148 41,783 2003 113,355 41,966 2004 117,127 43,230 2005 111,872 42,641 2006 109,539 42,932 Notes: 1. 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. 2. Data for 2003 and earlier do not include those PDS schemes that do not have any registrations (e.g. dental access centres), and is therefore not directly comparable with later data. 3. Selby and York PCT covers the York area. 4. The boundaries used are as at 31 March 2006.
With the introduction of the new contract on 1 April 2006 a new measure was introduced, “patients seen within the last 24 months”.
This measure has been used for the first time as a count of the number of distinct patient identities which have been processed during the last 24 months. Each identified patient is counted only once even if he or she has received several episodes of care or treatment over the measured period.
This measure is not directly comparable with the patient registrations data collected under the old contract as it was measured over a 15-month period rather than 24 months.
Patients have been identified by using surname, first initial, gender and date of birth. Each unique patient ID is normally assigned to the dental contract (and therefore PCT) against which the most recent claim for routine treatment was recorded in the 24-month period.
New contract
Number March 2006 161,155 June 2006 158,916 September 2006 157,484 Notes: 1. The boundaries used are as at 30 September 2006. 2. Currently the Patients seen data is not available at adult/child split. 3. Selby and York PCT covers the York area. Sources: The Information Centre for health and social care NHS Business Services Authority (BSA)
This information is not available centrally.
Information is available by course of treatment. Information on the average cost of a national health service (NHS) course of treatment for an adult charge payer is set out as follows. Treatment is free for all children and those adults who are exempt from NHS dental charges on income or other grounds.
£ Average cost 1997 33.58 2001 35.45 2005 38.55 Sources: 1. The Information Centre for health and social care 2. National Health Service (NHS) Business Services Authority (BSA) Note: The average cost of a GDS adult course of treatment for the year ending 31 March each year has been calculated by dividing the total adult gross fees for April to March for each year by the total number of adult courses of treatment for the same time period.
This information is not available in the form requested. Information is held centrally on the number of dentists on open national health service (NHS) contracts. As at the end of September 2006 there were 20,285 dentists reported on open NHS contracts. Dentists providing NHS treatment are free to provide private services also. Information is not held centrally on the number of dentists who choose to provide either only NHS or only private treatment.
The dental funding allocated to primary care trusts (PCTs) and strategic health authorities (SHAs) in 2006-07 is designed to support overall expenditure of £2,398 million on primary dental care services, with £1,765 million coming from PCTs and the balance from patient charge income. Precise levels of in-year expenditure and charge income will depend on a range of variables including the service levels (i.e. the annual units of dental activity) agreed by PCTs for each local contract with dentists, the relative proportions of chargeable and non-chargeable treatments carried out during the year, and the time taken to commission new services where there is a turnover in contracts.
The Government have also made available £40 million of capital resources as part of a two-year, £100 million programme of capital investment to improve infrastructure in national health service (NHS) primary dental care services.
PCTs decide locally what funding should be drawn from their total NHS resources for hospital and community based dental services, or, if appropriate, to supplement primary care provision.
The information requested is shown in the following table.
Dentists (performers) per 100,000 population England 40.2 East Midlands SHA 36.6 Daventry and South Northamptonshire PCT 29.1 Central Derby PCT 84.1 Mansfield District PCT 53.7 Newark and Sherwood PCT 46.3 West Lincolnshire PCT 33.2 Lincolnshire South West Teaching PCT 35.8 Chesterfield PCT 64.2 Gedling PCT 30.6 Amber Valley PCT 38.1 North Eastern Derbyshire PCT 28.1 Melton, Rutland and Harborough PCT 43.3 Leicester City West PCT 51.7 Nottingham City PCT 59.6 Erewash PCT 75.5 Bassetlaw PCT 51.7 Broxtowe and Hucknall PCT 56.3 Greater Derby PCT 28.3 Eastern Leicester PCT 55.5 Ashfield PCT 32.3 Rushcliffe PCT 49.5 Derbyshire Dales and South Derbyshire PCT 33.4 East Lincolnshire PCT 29.1 High Peak and Dales PCT 56.0 Hinckley and Bosworth PCT 30.6 Charnwood and North West Leicestershire PCT 44.1 South Leicestershire PCT 32.8 Northamptonshire Heartlands PCT 41.4 Northampton PCT 45.9 Notes: 1. Performers are defined as a dentist who has been set up on the Dental Practice Division (DPD), of the BSA, Payments online (POL) system by the PCT to work under an open contract as at 30 September 2006. Data provided are a count of the individuals listed as performers on open NHS contracts within the PCT, including orthodontists. 2. Figures for the numbers of dentists at specified dates may vary depending on the date the figures are compiled. This is because the BSA may be notified of joiners or leavers up to several months, or more, after the move has taken place. The data provided consists of that reported to the BSA by 2 November 2006 3. England and SHA population data have been estimated using Office for National Statistics 2005 mid-year population estimates based on the 2001 census. PCT data have been estimated using 2004 mid-year population estimates as these are the latest available at this level. Sources: 1. The Information Centre for health and social care 2. NHS Business Services Authority
Primary care trusts (PCTs) are responsible for managing net expenditure on dental services. If a PCT finds that patient charge income is below the expected levels, it is up to the PCT to work with dental providers locally to identify the reasons for this and, where appropriate, take corrective action.
Primary care trusts (PCTs) did not receive primary care dental allocations in 2005-06. PCTs assumed full responsibility for local commissioning of primary care dentistry and received devolved primary care dental allocations with effect from 1 April 2006.
The numbers of dentists at constituency level are not readily available. Numbers of dentists at primary care trust (PCT) level, as at 30 September 2006, have been published by The Information Centre for health and social care on 29 November 2006.
As at 30 September 2006, there were 89 dentists (performers) on open national health service contracts within St. Albans and Harpenden PCT.
Notes:
1. The data sources are The Information Centre for health and social care and the NHS Business Services Authority (BSA).
2. Performers are defined as a dentist who has been set up on the dental practice division of (DPD) of the BSA, payment online (POL) system by the PCT to work under an open contract as at 30 September 2006. Data provided are a count of the individuals listed as performers on open contracts within the PCT, including open orthodontists.
3. Figures for the numbers of dentists at specified dates may vary depending on the dates the figures are compiled. This is because the BSA may be notified of joiners or leavers up to several months, or more, after the move has taken place. The figure provided consists of that reported to the BSA by 2 November 2006.