NHS: Dentistry Question 11:07:00 Asked By Lord Colwyn To ask Her Majesty’s Government what progress they have made in the past decade towards the target announced by the then Prime Minister at the 1999 Labour Party conference that everybody would have easy access to an NHS dentist within the next two years. Baroness Thornton We regard access to dental care as a serious and urgent matter. We are now investing more than £2 billion centrally in the NHS dental service. Access has steadily increased over the past five quarters, with 939,000 more patients being seen in the 24 months ending in September 2009. Lord Colwyn I thank the noble Baroness for that Answer, which sounds very encouraging. Access has improved, but far too slowly to honour Mr Blair’s pledge of full access by September 2002. In the past two years, 3 million people have tried but been unable to get a dental appointment and 4.5 million have given up. The NHS operating framework 2010-11 places a clear duty on PCTs to ensure that everyone who wants access has it by April 2011. Can the Minister confirm that this is endorsed by the Government? What plans do the Government have to pilot and implement the Steele review, which focuses on registration and health outcomes, rather than numerical levels of access? Baroness Thornton The 2009-10 operating framework does indeed set out the NHS goal of providing access to those who seek it. We absolutely endorse that. We have set ourselves a goal of delivering this by March 2011 at the latest. As I have just said, access has been rising over the past five quarters. We think that rising trend will continue. The noble Lord is right; we had to catch up on the fall in access and we intend to do that. As regards the Steele review, we have established a Steele implementation programme. We are working closely with a number of stakeholders, including the BDA, I am pleased to say, to implement those recommendations. We anticipate that the first pilots will be launched in spring 2010. Lord Lea of Crondall My Lords, I declare an interest as a member of the All-Party Parliamentary Group on Dentistry, along with the noble Lord, Lord Colwyn. I tabled a Written Question two months ago about the fact that many NHS trusts do not collect public data on dentists who tell trusts they will deliver NHS treatment, but then tell people who ring up that they take only private patients. Will my noble friend persuade NHS trusts to collect statistics on this matter? Baroness Thornton The key point is that people access their dentists through the information which is readily available from their PCTs about which dentists provide NHS treatment. Those dentists are on that list because they provide NHS treatment. Therefore, we would not expect them to give the answer that was mentioned. We would prefer to approach this from the point of view of maximising people’s access to NHS dentists. Baroness Tonge My Lords, it is only right to congratulate the Government on the progress that has been made in the provision of NHS dentistry. It may be limited progress but it is progress and we welcome it. I have to say that even in my home area— Noble Lords Question! Baroness Tonge Does the Minister realise that even in my home area of Richmond, which is not short of a bob or two, there is now reasonable provision of NHS dentists? Indeed, some of my family use them. Since the demise of community services— Noble Lords Order. Baroness Tonge Does she realise that, since the demise of community services, there is now a total absence of school dentistry? How will the Government ensure that children from disadvantaged groups and those with uncaring parents get dental care? Baroness Thornton I am very grateful to the noble Baroness for her endorsement of the increasing access to dentistry. Of course we are very concerned about children’s dental health, which, I am pleased to say, has been steadily improving over the years. We and colleagues in the DCSF looked at introducing school dental examinations. The noble Baroness will appreciate that we felt at the time that this was not the right way to go because of the complexity of getting permission to inspect children’s teeth in schools and all the bureaucracy that that might involve. We thought that it would be better to ensure that parents were taking their children to the dentist and following proper dental hygiene. Earl Ferrers My Lords, would the noble Lord the Captain of the Gentlemen-at-Arms be kind enough to repeat the statement that he made at the beginning? I think that some noble Lords did not hear it. Baroness Thornton I hope that the noble Earl will accept that I did hear it and have been trying to adhere to it. Lord Foster of Bishop Auckland My Lords, does my noble friend think that we are training and recruiting enough dentists? Baroness Thornton That is a very important matter. There is no point in having increased access if you do not have enough dentists to do the job. I am very pleased to say that we have seen a steady increase in the number of dentists who are available. All 700 or 800 dentists who qualified in the past year have found positions. We have increased the number of students entering dentistry schools. Obviously we need to make sure that we are keeping up the supply of dentists to match the fact that there will be increased demand on our dentistry services. Lord Mawhinney My Lords, the House will be pleased that the Government endorse the 2011 access strategy. How will they ensure that the PCTs actually deliver it? Baroness Thornton PCTs have been given ring-fenced funding to provide dental services and in the past year 96 per cent of that funding was, indeed, spent. Part of our monitoring of PCTs’ effectiveness is about making sure that they not only spend the ring-fenced funding that they have been given to provide dentistry services, but that they do it effectively. Earl Howe My Lords, one problem for consumers is knowing how to find an NHS dentist. Have the Government considered using the NHS Choices website for that and making its online search function more user-friendly so that consumers can identify which dentists are accepting NHS patients? Baroness Thornton The noble Earl makes a good point. I am surprised to learn that NHS Choices and NHS Direct do not provide that kind of information and I undertake to look into that. These services point people in the direction of local helplines, but the noble Earl makes a good point and I will certainly look into it.