We do not hold information about the number of dentists working privately, but almost all new dental graduates undertake one year’s vocational training in a dental practice with a major national health service commitment. We are also aware that it is some years before a newly qualified dentist can build up a significant private practice and that most dentists work in mixed practice providing both NHS and private dentistry. There is no evidence of a shortage of dentists willing to take NHS contracts when they are offered.
Information is not available in the format requested.
The estimated full year number of clinical dental items delivered, by patient type during 2003-04 and 2008-09, is available in Tables 1 and 2 for England and Tables 7 and 8 for Wales in the “Provisional Clinical Dental Report, England and Wales: Quarter 3, 31 December 2008—Experimental Statistics” report.
This publication carries the label “Experimental statistics”. Experimental statistics are new official statistics undergoing evaluation. They are published in order to involve users and stakeholders in their development and as a means to build in quality at an early stage.
Note that as the nature of the dental contract was different in 2003-04 to 2008-09, covering a differing range of services, with different data collection practices and funding regimes in place, there are a number of reasons why figures are not fully comparable across the two years. The figures published should be treated with the caution appropriate to all experimental data.
This report, published on 19 August 2009, has been placed in the Library and is also available on the NHS Information Centre website at:
www.ic.nhs.uk/pubs/clinicaldental0809q3
Prior to April 2006, most primary dental services were provided under former General Dental Service (GDS) arrangements. These were demand led services where the pattern of dental expenditure was largely determined by where dentists chose to practice, and how much national health service work they chose to undertake.
The NHS Information Centre for health and social care published the following report on 26 March 2008: “NHS Expenditure for General Dental Services and Personal Dental Services: England 1997-98—2005-06”. This report has already been placed in the Library and is also available on the NHS Information Centre website at:
www.ic.nhs.uk/pubs/dentalexpendl997to2006
The report includes information on primary dental care expenditure by parliamentary constituency, primary care trust (PCT) and strategic health authority (SHA) area for 1997-98 to 2005-06 in Tables A3 and B3 of Annex 3. Table A3 relates to ‘gross’ expenditure and table B3 relates to ‘net’ expenditure. ‘Gross’ expenditure refers to the full cost of the payments recorded; ‘net’ expenditure reflects the cost of these payments to the NHS after the deduction of income from NHS dental charges paid by patients.
This information is based on the old contractual arrangements which were in place up to and including 31 March 2006. Further notes to aid interpretation of the information are shown in the ‘Contents and Notes’ page of Annex 3. The data will not be directly comparable with data based on the new dental service framework introduced from 1 April 2006.
The former GDS arrangements were replaced with effect from 1 April 2006, when PCTs were given responsibility for planning and commissioning primary dental services and provided with local, devolved, dental budgets. The primary dental service funding allocations made to the North Yorkshire and York PCT, the aggregate allocations to all PCTs within the Yorkshire and the Humber SHA, and the aggregate allocations to the NHS in England, for each of the four years since PCTs assumed full responsibility for primary dental care services, are in the following table. These are net of income from dental charges paid by patients, which are retained locally by PCTs to supplement the resources available for dentistry. PCTs may also dedicate some of their other NHS resources to dentistry if they consider this an appropriate local priority. Allocations are not apportioned by individual constituencies or towns; PCTs determine the distribution of resources within their area on the basis of local needs and priorities. Actual expenditure levels are determined by the pattern and type of services commissioned by each PCT and are recorded in the notes to PCT accounts.
£000 2006-07 2007-08 2008-09 2009-10 North Yorkshire and York PCT 25,195 26,894 30,088 31,392 Yorkshire and the Humber SHA 186,918 198,973 222,180 237,653 England 1,764,700 1,872,442 2,081,000 2,257,000 Notes: 1. The PCT allocation figure for 2006-07 is the aggregate of the allocations made initially to the Craven, Harrogate and Rural District, Hambleton and Richmondshire, Scarborough, Whitby and Ryedale, and Selby and York PCTs before they merged to form the North Yorkshire and York PCT with effect from 1 October 2006. 2. PCTs are awarded separate funding allocations to meet the cost of any dental vocational trainees who may be placed with dental practices in their area. The funding totals for the Yorkshire and Humber SHA, and England, include funding for vocational trainees.
Information is not available in the format requested.
The number of units of dental activity performed in England by treatment band in 2006-07, 2007-08 and 2008-09 is available in Table B3 of Annex 3 of the “NHS Dental Statistics for England: 2008-09” report. Information is provided by primary care trust and strategic health authority but is not available at constituency level. This information is based on the new dental contractual arrangements, introduced on 1 April 2006.
This report, published on 19 August 2009, has already been placed in the Library and is available on the NHS Information Centre website at:
www.ic.nhs.uk/pubs/dentalstats0809