Issue - meetings

Bill Millar, Assistant Director of Primary Care, West Kent Primary Care Trust and Jayne Macdonald, Head of Primary Care – Dentistry, Eastern & Coastal Kent Primary Care Trust will be in attendance for this item.

(Bill Millar, Assistant Director of Primary Care, West Kent Primary Care Trust and Jayne Macdonald, Head of Primary Care – Dentistry, Eastern & Coastal Kent Primary Care Trust were in attendance for this item)

(1)       The Committee had before them a briefing note on the provision of NHS Dental services across the county following the introduction of the new dentistry contract in 2006.  A letter from the Local Dentist Committee was tabled at the meeting.

(2)       The Committee asked Mr Millar and Ms MacDonald a range of questions which covered issues such as:-

a)         The average salary for a dentist which the committee acknowledged covered the premises, equipment and staffing of the dental practice.  It was noted that the average salary was £140,000 per annum;

b)         The number of dentists in each PCT area who were still in dispute over the new dental contract and how the PCT were seeking to resolve these disputes;

c)         recognising that there were many parts of the County where it was difficult to find any NHS provision what efforts were being made by each Primary Care trust to increase the number of NHS dentists available; and

d)         The number of units of dental activity purchased by Primary Care Trusts as some dentists were indicating significant increases in activity for which they were not funded.  The Committee noted that the average cost for a unit of dental activity was £20.

(3)       RESOLVED that:-

(a)       Mr B Millar, Assistant Director of Primary Care and Ms J MacDonald, Head of Primary Care - Dentistry be thanked for their attendance; and

(b) The impact of the new Dentist contract and the provision of NHS dentists across Kent be kept under review and a further report be made available to the November 2007 meeting of the Committee.