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Dentistry

Answer

The main element of national health service dental services are the primary dental care services provided by dentists working within the general dental service (GDS), or personal dental service (PDS) pilots. Until April 2006, when primary care trusts (PCTs) became responsible for commissioning all primary dental care services, the GDS was a non- discretionary service funded from a national budget. Expenditure was mainly determined by the volume of NHS work that dentists chose to undertake. Local budget allocations were not assigned to individual PCTs.The level of expenditure on hospital and community dental services is decided at local level by PCTs. The tables show the most readily available core data on expenditure on GDS and PDS services for the Morecambe Bay PCT. The difference between gross and net expenditure is the contribution to costs from dental charges collected directly from patients. As the notes explain, this data does not capture certain elements of GDS and PDS expenditure, and reliable local PDS data based on practice level details is only available from the financial year 2004-05. Full data for 2005-06 is not yet available.

Core GDS and PDS dental payments1, 2, 3, 4
Core GDS and PDS dental payments1, 2, 3, 4	£ million		1997-98	1998-99	1999-2000	2000-01	2001-02	2002-03	2003-04	2004-05
Gross GDS	8.025	8.372	8.622	8.983	9.642	9.767	9.799	9.260
Net GDS	5.182	5.356	5.460	5.667	6.081	6.180	6.331	6.140
Gross PDS	n/a	n/a	n/a	n/a	n/a	n/a	n/a	1.564
Net PDS	n/a	n/a	n/a	n/a	n/a	n/a	n/a	1.378
Gross GDS and PDS	8.025	8.372	8.622	8.983	9.642	9.767	9.799	10.824
Net GDS and PDS	5.182	5.356	5.460	5.667	6.081	6.180	6.331	7.519
Notes:
1. Gross GDS payments include adult fees, including item of service and continuing care payments, child fees, including item of service and capitation payments, commitment payments and point of treatment check payment training (in 2001 only), seniority payments, maternity/paternity/adoptive leave payments, long term sick leave payments, continuing professional development allowances including travel hours, reimbursement of business rates, vocational training grants and clinical audit payments. The following costs are excluded from this data: employer's superannuation costs, vocational trainee salaries and national insurance contribution costs, clinical audit convenors, clinical audit secretarial support costs and travel expenses, and costs associated with any salaried general dental practitioners and emergency dental services.
2. PDS payment data is included for 2004-05 only and relates to baseline payments or the agreed regular monthly payments made to PDS practices. Reliable PDS data at practice level are not available prior to 2004-05. The data cannot identify the cost of any PDS services that are directly managed by local NHS trusts, such as certain dental access centres.
3. Payments are assigned to areas on the basis of practice postcode data.
4. Net payments represent the balance of payments due after taking account of NHS dental charge income collected from patients by dental practices.

Secondary information

Type

Written question

Reference

446 c64-6W; 68769

Session

2005-06

Subjects

Dental services Morecambe Bay Primary Care Trust Morecambe Bay

Link

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