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Dept of Health

Answer

Mr. Drew: To ask the Secretary of State for Health (1) how many dentists were accepting national health service patients in (a) Stroud, (b) Gloucestershire and (c) England in (i) 1990, (ii) 1997 and (iii) the last year for which figures are available; [131495] (2) how many dentists in (a) Stroud and (b) Gloucestershire accept (i) national health service patients and (ii) only children as NHS patients; and how many are registered as private practices. [131496] Ms Rosie Winterton: The table shows the number of practices providing general dental services (GDS) in England, Gloucestershire and Cotswold and Vale Primary Care Trust, which covers Stroud, at August 1990, August 1997 and August 2003. These figures exclude salaried dentists working in the general dental service, dentists working in community dental services, personal dental services and hospital dental services and dentists who do no national health service work. Information is not collected centrally on the number of dentists who practice solely privately but it is thought that the number of such dentists is around 2 per cent. General dental service: number of dental practices at 31 August each year _________________________________________________________________________________________________. Area 1990 1 1997 2 2003 England 8,547 8,303 8,623 -- -- -- Family Health Service Authority -- -- -- Gloucestershire 97 -- -- -- -- -- Health Authority -- -- -- Gloucestershire -- 109 -- -- -- -- Primary Care Trust -- -- -- South Gloucestershire -- -- 30 Cheltenham and Tewkesbury -- -- 34 West Gloucestershire -- -- 31 Cotswold and Vale -- -- 36 _________________________________________________________________________________________________. 1 Following the move from family health service authority (FHSAs) to health authority (HAs) in 1996, results were published by HA rather than by FHSA. 2 Following the move from health authority (HAs) to primary care trusts (PCTs) in 2001, results were published by strategic health authority (SHA) and PCT rather than by region and HA Source: Dental Practice Board The number of practices accepting new NHS patients for registration at October 2003 is shown in the following table. The information is obtained from the www.nhs.uk website. This information is not available for earlier years. Some people choose not to register with a GDS dentist and only visit the dentist when they require treatment on an occasional basis. Patients may also obtain treatment from other NHS dental services, including dental access centres. NHS dental services: number of general dental service practices and personal dental service pilots accepting new patients for registration, 3 October 2003 _________________________________________________________________________________________________. Primary care trust Registering charge exempt Registering charge paying Registering children aged 0 to adults for NHS treatment adults for NHS treatment 18 years for NHS treatment England 3,471 3,124 4,340 Four Gloucestershire PCTs 12 7 12 Cotswold and Vale PCI 4 1 3 _________________________________________________________________________________________________. Source: http://www.nhs.uk

Secondary information

Type

Written question

Reference

412 c233-4W;412 c241-2W; 131495;131496

Session

2002-03

Subjects

Access Children Dental services Private sector NHS Patients Gloucestershire Stroud

Contains statistics

Yes

Link

View this Written question on www.publications.parliament.uk