Chamber and committees

The Health Department has a number of means of communicating with general dental practitioners but recognise that improvements can be made, particularly in light of the recently published Action Plan for Improving Oral Health and Modernising NHS Dental Services in Scotland. I have undertaken to write directly to dentists about the action plan and the department will also be issuing regular information bulletins to keep dentists up to date with the Executive’s progress on implementing the plan.

This information is not heldcentrally.

A revised Return to Work scheme under the Scottish Dental Access Initiative (SDAI) was introduced with effect from 1 April 2003. The funding available under the SDAI to help with establishing new or expanding existing NHS dental practices was doubled last year to reflect the increasing costs of establishing or extending practices. The Allowances Review Group, which the Executive established in 2003, has suggested additional ways in which the SDAI may be developed and these are currently being explored.

The Health Department has a number of ways of communicating with general dental practitioners but the normal method is by a Memorandum to a PCA letter.

Information on the number of grants under the Scottish Dental Access (SDAI) Initiative where the first tranche of grant has been paid in a calendar year is provided below. Due to the commercial sensitivity of the information and the need to respect the anonymity of the applicants, information on the SDAI cannot be provided on an individual NHS board basis.

Year	North1.	East2.	West3.
1998	4	1	2
1999	3	2	8
2000	1	4	3
2001	0	0	0
2002	0	1	3
2003	2	2	4
20044.	0	2	5
20055.	0	2	11

Notes:

1. North comprises Grampian, Highland, Orkney, Shetland and Western Isles NHS Boards.

2. East comprises Borders, Fife, Forth Valley, Lothian and Tayside NHS Boards.

3. West comprises Argyll and Clyde, Ayrshire and Arran, Dumfries and Galloway, Greater Glasgow and Lanarkshire NHS Boards.

4. A further four offers of grant have been accepted but the first payments have not yet been made.

5. A further seven offers of grant have been accepted but the first payments have not yet been made.

I made a major policy statement in Parliament on 17 March announcing the publication of the Executive’s Action Plan for Improving Oral Health and Modernising NHS Dental Services in Scotland. The Action Plan sets out the Executive’s response to the two consultation documents Towards Better Oral Health in Children and Modernising NHS Dental Services in Scotland. The analysis of consultation responses for Modernising NHS Dental Services in Scotland was published last year.

I refer the member to the answer to question S2W-17116 on 14 June 2005. All answers to written parliamentary questions are available on the Parliament's website, thesearch facility for which can be found at http://www.scottish.parliament.uk/webapp/wa.search.

The Executive has provided £13.3 million over the last five financial years for dental practice improvements. Some of this funding has been targeted at improvements to address the requirements of the Disability Discrimination Act. A further £5 million in practice improvement funding will be provided in this financial year.

Information on uptake of the recruitment and retention allowances by general dental practitioners is provided in the following tables. Additionally, we introduced on 1 April 2004 an allowance for salaried dentists being employed by NHS boards within three months of completion of training and for those dentists being employed as salaried dentists, who are not already employed in the salaried services, by NHS boards. Information on the uptake of these allowances is not yet available.

Allowance for Vocational Trainees Entering their Vocational Training Year in Scotland

NHS Board Area	No. of Claims1. 2002-03	No. of Claims1. 2003-04	No. of Claims 2004-05
Argyll and Clyde	3	4	10
Ayrshire and Arran	-	-	5
Borders	5	4	5
Dumfries and Galloway	2	3	3
Fife	-	-	8
Forth Valley	-	-	9
Grampian	8	8	12
Greater Glasgow	-	-	16
Highland	3	3	2
Lanarkshire	-	-	11
Lothian	-	-	27
Orkney	0	1	1
Shetland	0	0	0
Tayside	-	-	12
Western Isles	1	1	2
Scotland	22	24	123

Source: Practitioner Services of NHS National Services Scotland.

Notes:

1. Prior to 1 April 2004 the allowance was only payable to those dentists taking up their vocational training year in a designated area.

2. A designated area is defined as the areas of Borders, Dumfries and Galloway, Grampian, Highland, Orkney, Shetland, Western Isles NHS Boards and, within the area of Argyll and Clyde NHS Board, Campbeltown, Dunoon, Lochgilphead, Lochgoilhead, Oban, Rothsay, Tarbert and the Isles of Mull, Iona, Colonsay, Tiree, Islay and Jura.

Allowance for Dentists Having their Name Included in a Dental List Within Three Months of Completion of Training

NHS Board Area	No. of Claims 2002-03	No. of Claims 2003-04	No. of Claims 2004-05
Argyll and Clyde	3	8	3
Ayrshire and Arran	0	0	3
Borders	0	0	0
Dumfries and Galloway	2	1	1
Fife	4	6	5
Forth Valley	0	3	7
Grampian	7	1	2
Greater Glasgow	8	16	16
Highland	0	0	1
Lanarkshire	6	13	11
Lothian	9	3	16
Orkney	0	0	0
Shetland	0	0	0
Tayside	5	4	4
Western Isles	0	0	0
Scotland	44	55	69

Source: Practitioner Services of NHS National Services Scotland.

Allowance for dentists having their name included in a dental list for the first time or on having their name re-included after a break of five years¹.

NHS Board Area	No. of Claims 2004-05
Argyll and Clyde	1
Ayrshire and Arran	2
Borders	0
Dumfries and Galloway	0
Fife	0
Forth Valley	0
Grampian	5
Greater Glasgow	6
Highland	2
Lanarkshire	0
Lothian	8
Orkney	0
Shetland	0
Tayside	3
Western Isles	0
Scotland	27

Source: Practitioner Services of NHS National Services Scotland.

Note:

1. This allowance was introduced on 1 April 2004.

The fees contained in the Statement of Dental Remuneration (SDR) are uprated every year in light of the recommendation of the independent Doctors’ and Dentists’ Review Body. As part of the Action Plan to Improve Oral Health and Modernise NHS Dental Services in Scotland the Executive has undertaken to simplify the SDR, reducing the items of treatment from over 400 to around 50. This simplification is not about reducing what is available on the NHS, but making the whole system simpler for practices (and patients) to understand and use.

The Executive has also introduced a number of new grants and allowances over the last few years. An Allowances Review Group has been established to look at whether these allowances are delivering and to recommend any changes. The group first met in November 2003 and continues to meet quarterly.