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Written question asked by Patsy Calton (Liberal Democrat) on Tuesday, 23 March 2004, in the House of Commons. It was due for an answer on Monday, 19 April 2004. It was answered by Baroness Winterton of Doncaster (Labour) on Monday, 19 April 2004 on behalf of the Department of Health.


Dept of Health

Question
To ask the Secretary of State for Health, pursuant to the Answer of 17th March, Official Report, 419 c388W, on IT (Dentists), what pilot schemes have been undertaken to facilitate integration of NHS dentistry within the national programme for IT; pursuant to the Answer of 17th March, Official Report, column 388W, on IT (Dentists), what assessment has been made of (a) the success of and (b) areas for improvement within pilot schemes to facilitate integration of NHS dentistry within the national programme for IT.
Answer

Mrs. Calton: To ask the Secretary of State for Health pursuant to the answer of 17 March 2004, Official Report, column 388W, on IT (Dentists), (1) what pilot schemes have been undertaken to facilitate integration of NHS dentistry within the national programme for IT; [163906] (2) what assessment has been made of (a) the success of and (b) areas for improvement within pilot schemes to facilitate integration of NHS dentistry within the national programme for IT. [163907] Ms Rosie Winterton: Forty seven dental practices in England are involved in 23 pilot schemes set up by the Modernisation Agency as part of the modernising dentistry programme, which was created following the publication of Options for Change in August 2002. The aim of the modernising dentistry programme is to facilitate new ways of working in the delivery of National Health Service primary care dental services. Allied to this are streams of work to support modernisation in dental hospitals and secondary care. The focus is on supporting and improving any area of patient care through the better use of Information Technology (IT) and the National Programme for IT (NpfIT) is developing services that are intended to be used by all NHS clinicians. This includes dentists, and we will be testing new ways of working and contributing to the new dental service which will be rolled out from 2005 onwards. Although these pilots were initiated prior to dentistry being brought into the NPfIT, the outcomes of these pilots will feed directly into the future requirements for dental IT systems.


Secondary information

Type
Written question
Reference
420 c190-1W;420 c192W; 163906;163907
Session
2003-04
Subjects
Dental services ICT Pilot schemes
Link
View this Written question on www.publications.parliament.uk