To ask the Secretary of State for Health how many dentists have left the NHS, in whole or in part, to work in the private sector in each year since 1997 in (a) Greater London and (b) each London borough.
Information on the total number of dentists leaving the general dental service (GDS) or personal dental service (PDS) is given in the table for primary care trust (PCT) areas in London; information is not collected by borough. Information is not available on the reason for leaving.
Dentists can leave the national health service for a variety of reasons. These include retirements, short-term absence, leaving for other employment as well as dentists leaving the NHS dental services to practise wholly privately. Those working in the GDS can increase or reduce their NHS commitment, and this is not reflected in the figures.
Few dentists leave the NHS altogether to practise privately. The Office of Fair Trading report, "The private dentistry market in the UK", stated that only 210 practices are totally private in the United Kingdom out of 11,000 practices in total.
The number of NHS dentists in the Greater London area increased from 3,107 in September 1997 to 3,444 in September 2003.
Year ending 30 September | ||||||
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Primary Care Trust | 1998 | 1999 | 2000 | 2001 | 2002 | 2003 |
Barking and Dagenham | 2 | 1 | 3 | 3 | 6 | 1 |
Barnet | 12 | 13 | 6 | 13 | 10 | 11 |
Bexley Care Trust | 2 | 6 | 6 | 6 | 7 | 5 |
Brent | 7 | 10 | 4 | 7 | 11 | 11 |
Bromley | 13 | 2 | 9 | 7 | 8 | 9 |
Camden | 17 | 14 | 13 | 12 | 23 | 11 |
City and Hackney | 9 | 5 | 9 | 6 | 9 | 4 |
Croydon | 17 | 13 | 9 | 13 | 20 | 5 |
Ealing | 10 | 13 | 32 | 7 | 21 | 1 |
Enfield | 10 | 10 | 8 | 8 | 4 | 10 |
Greenwich | 4 | 6 | 7 | 7 | 5 | 4 |
Hammersmith and Fulham | 4 | 3 | 10 | 9 | 19 | 2 |
Haringey | 8 | 3 | 11 | 13 | 9 | 8 |
Harrow | 2 | 6 | 7 | 4 | 7 | 2 |
Havering | 3 | 5 | 5 | 5 | 7 | 7 |
Hillingdon | 6 | 9 | 5 | 9 | 11 | 8 |
Hounslow | 6 | 3 | 14 | 13 | 14 | 2 |
Islington | 7 | 7 | 12 | 9 | 12 | 14 |
Kensington and Chelsea | 10 | 2 | 6 | 5 | 7 | 11 |
Kingston | 1 | 4 | 7 | 8 | 7 | 2 |
Lambeth | 12 | 21 | 8 | 14 | 14 | 5 |
Lewisham | 3 | 13 | 9 | 9 | 16 | 5 |
Newham | 5 | 5 | 5 | 9 | 6 | 6 |
Redbridge | 5 | 5 | 7 | 9 | 13 | 9 |
Richmond and Twickenham | 3 | 6 | 9 | 10 | 6 | 6 |
Southwark | 4 | 10 | 6 | 13 | 6 | 6 |
Sutton and Merton | 9 | 8 | 12 | 9 | 17 | 11 |
Tower Hamlets | 4 | 6 | 5 | 4 | 7 | 5 |
Waltham Forest | 7 | 2 | 2 | 5 | 5 | 6 |
Wandsworth | 19 | 10 | 16 | 17 | 19 | 25 |
Westminster | 13 | 26 | 12 | 24 | 21 | 19 |
Greater London PCTs | 234 | 247 | 274 | 287 | 347 | 231 |
Note:
Information is not available on the number of dentists who have partially left the NHS. Dentists in the GDS and PDS are mainly self-employed and are free to vary the amount of NHS work that they do.
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