Written question asked by Peter Viggers (Conservative) on Monday, 4 April 2005, in the House of Commons. It was due for an answer on Wednesday, 6 April 2005. It was answered by Baroness Winterton of Doncaster (Labour) on Wednesday, 6 April 2005 on behalf of the Department of Health.

Dept of Health

Question: To ask the Secretary of State for Health, how many dentists in Gosport are accepting new NHS adult patients.

Answer: Mr. Viggers: To ask the Secretary of State for Health how many dentists in Gosport are accepting new NHS adult patients. [224881] Ms Rosie Winterton: There are 80 dentists practising in the Fareham and Gosport Primary Care Trust (PCT) area as at 31 December 2004. Latest information from the national health service's website shows that there are currently no dentists accepting new NHS adult patients. The NHS dentistry support team has been working with Fareham and Gosport PCT to assist it in tackling problems of local dental access. The PCT agreed a dental action plan with the support team, in August 2004, which it is now implementing. The plan will create in excess of 20,000 new NHS patient places together with 25,000 access session appointments. The PCT has received additional recurrent funds from the support team of £310,000 to support the delivery of the plan.

Secondary information