Parliamentary questions w/e 24 Feb 2017
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- Published: Monday, 27 February 2017 07:41
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Steve McCabe MP continued his questioning of ministers on matters dental.The Conservative MP for Peterborough wanted to know how many extarctions were carried out in his local hospital. Andrew Selous MP asked about compensation for dentists affected by delays in their application to go on the Performers List.
Steve McCabe MP Labour, Birmingham, Selly Oak asked what information on the availability of dental services is routinely collected.
Minister, David Mowat MP, gave the following information:
- Dental Commissioning Statistics, England
These statistics report the volume of Units of Dental Activity commissioned for the upcoming 12 months. This data is collected by NHS England and published quarterly at local office, regional and national level by NHS England. The latest publication can be found here:
- NHS Dental Statistics for England: Patients Seen - by Dental Practice
These statistics report the number of adult patients seen in the previous 24 months and the number of children seen in the previous 12 months, for NHS dental care. The data is published by NHS Digital for public use.
- General Practitioner Patient Survey Dental Statistics, England
The GP Patient Survey, previously published twice yearly, will be published annually from July 2017 at national, regional and CCG level. It includes information about the number of patients who tried to get an NHS dental appointment in the last two years, how successful they were and for those who did not try to get an appointment a question to ask why they hadn’t tried.
Steve McCabe MP also asked how many children were seen in each 12 month period from 2010 to 2016; and what proportion of those patients were seen as an emergency appointment in each such period and how many patients were seen in each 12 month period from 2010 to 2016; and what proportion of those patients were seen as an emergency appointment in each such period.
Minister, David Mowat MP, said the information is not available in the format requested. But data is collected on the number of adults seen in the last 24 months and the number of children seen in the last 12 months. Information is not available on the proportion of patients seen as an emergency appointment for adults or children.
Stewart Jackson MP Conservative, Peterborough asked how many extractions of multiple teeth for children under the age of 18 in took place in each year since 2005; what the cost of such extractions was in each such year.Minister, David Mowat MP, said the Department did not hold information on the cost or the number of children under 18 that have had multiple teeth extractions in those hospitals.
Andrew Selous MP Conservative, South West Bedfordshire asked 1. What reimbursement applicants to the National Dental Performers' List receive as compensation for earnings lost while waiting for their applications to be processed in the event that such a period is longer than the target of 12 weeks. 2. How many applicants are awaiting a decision to join the National Dental Performers' List; and what the average time is applicants have been waiting for their application to be processed. 3. Whether dental practice owners will be financially penalised for not meeting their contractual activity targets in 2016-17 as a result of delays processing applications of their existing or potential members of staff to the National Dental Performers' List.
Minister, David Mowat MP replied that NHS England’s standing guidance which sets out the expectation of a 12 week turn around for routine applications does not include any expectation of, or provision for, compensation if an application takes more than 12 weeks. The Performers List safeguards are important and are there for the protection of the public. Therefore, it is vital that Primary Care Support England and NHS England ensure each application provides the right evidence to enable it to be considered. For some applications it can take a number of months to properly complete these checks.
NHS England has informed us that it is currently evaluating all consequences of the current delays associated with the processing of performer applications. NHS England advises that information on the total number of applicants awaiting a decision to join the National Dental Performers' List (new applications) and what the average time those applicants have been waiting for their application to be processed is not held in the format requested. New applications for a performer number are made by Dental Foundation Trainees (DFTs) and dentists who graduated from dental schools outside England seeking to work in the NHS in England.
For new applications information is only held centrally on applications from DFTs. NHS England advise that of the 867 applications to join the performer list by DFTs waiting to be processed as at 9 February 2017, 866 of these have now been processed. Other applications to join the list, such as from dentists trained outside England are handled locally and numbers are not available centrally. NHS England advise, however, that they expect these also to be completed as a priority.
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