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Dentistry

Answer

[holding answer 8 May 2006]: The number of patients registered with a national health service dentist in Morecambe Bay Primary Care Trust as at 31 December in each specified year is shown in the table.With effect from September 1996, the registration period for adults was reduced from two years to fifteen months from the date of the patient's last attendance at the dentist. Registration periods for children were also standardised at 15 months. This produced a gradual reduction in the number of patients registered with dentists between January and September 1998 as those adult patients who were originally registered on a 24-month basis and did not return to the dentist were no longer counted.

General dental services (GDS) and personal dental services (PDS)
General dental services (GDS) and personal dental services (PDS)		Registered patients
1997	173,009
1998	155,221
1999	157,106
2000	160,389
2001	161,980
2002	158,667
2003	151,480
2004	151,423
2005	144,555
Notes:
1. PDS schemes have varying registration periods. To ensure comparability with corresponding GDS data, PDS registrations for established PDS practices are estimated using proxy registrations, namely the number of patients seen by PDS practices in the past 15 months.
2. Data for 2003 and earlier do not include those PDS schemes that do not have any registrations, for example dental access centres, and is therefore not directly comparable with 2004 and 2005 data.
3. The registration figures for 1997 are not comparable with subsequent years due to the change in the registration period to 15 months. Previously the period for adults was 24 months whilst children's registrations expired at the end of the following calendar year. The introduction of PDS in October 1998 and subsequent growth has also affected the figures.
4. The areas have been defined using practice postcodes within the PCT, not the patient's home address.
5. Prison contracts have not been included in this analysis.
Sources:
The Information Centre for health and social care
Business Services Authority

Secondary information

Type

Written question

Reference

68735; 446 c225W

Session

2005-06

Subjects

Dental services Morecambe Bay

Contains statistics

Yes

Link

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