Department of Health and Social Care
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Dental Board Taking Forward Steele Review Recommendations
A new group has been set up to oversee the implementation of the Steele Review recommendations to improve dental services for patients.
Professor Jimmy Steele, who led the Independent Review of NHS Dental Services, has joined the implementation board that will ensure the delivery of the Review’s recommendations. Chief Dental Officer Barry Cockcroft and John Milne, Chair of the General Dental Practice Committee are also members of the board.
The Review provided recommendations on improving oral health, increasing access and ensuring high quality dental care for patients in its final report published in June last year. The implementation board is now inviting dentists and Primary Care Trusts to trial innovative ways of delivering services to improve treatment for patients by creating a system focussed on outcomes. The pilots will look at a range of issues, including:
increasing access to NHS dentistsintroducing patient registrationmeasuring quality as well as quantity of treatment; andencouraging dentists to carry out more preventative work.
Chief Dental Officer Barry Cockcroft said:
"Prevention and quality are two of the most important principles of today's NHS and Professor Jimmy Steele’s Review of NHS dentistry made many excellent recommendations to improve these. I am pleased that Professor Jimmy Steele has agreed to join the board taking forward these recommendations and look forward to working with him to make a real difference to dental care for patients.
"Access to NHS dentistry is already improving with 840,000 more patients visiting an NHS dentist in the last year. New NHS dental surgeries are opening up all over the country. I recognise that more needs to be done to ensure that everyone who wants to can access high-quality dental services, and we are committed to delivering that vision”
Professor Jimmy Steelesaid,
"During the Review of NHS Dental Services I worked extensively with patients, dental professionals and the wider NHS to identify ways in which the NHS could improve and offer all patients the highest standard of care. The pilots will test the recommendations are important to ensure any changes made work for both patients and the NHS.
"I am pleased to have the opportunity to see through the recommendations of my final report as they are rolled out across the NHS. It is important that we improve preventative services to keep people healthy as well as making sure they have access to the best possible care when they need it.”
Access to NHS dental services has improved with nearly 1,200 more dentists working in the NHS than two years ago. Access has risen steadily over the last four quarters with 840,000 more patients visiting a dentist in the 24 months ending September 2009 than in the same period ending September 2008. Our aim is to ensure that everyone who wants to see an NHS dentist can by March 2011 and we have invested over £2 billion in NHS dentistry to help achieve this.
Notes to Editors
For media enquiries only please contact the Department of Health press office on 020 7210 5221The final report of the Independent Review of NHS Dental Services can be found here:
http://www.dh.gov.uk/en/Healthcare/Primarycare/Dental/DH_094048
Contacts:
Department of Health
Phone: 020 7210 5221
NDS.DH@coi.gsi.gov.uk
