Part of Oral Answers to Questions — Health – in the House of Commons am 2:30 pm ar 24 Mawrth 2009.
Ann Keen
Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Health Services), Department of Health
2:30,
24 Mawrth 2009
I was assured by NHS South West and Gloucestershire primary care trust this morning that the PCT is in the process of inviting tenders for dental services with a total value of £6 million over the next two years—that is, £3 million in 2009-10 and £3 million in 2010-11. This investment will be used for building purpose-built practices as well as refurbishing community hospital sites to enable them to provide dental services, focusing on areas of most need in Gloucestershire. This investment has the potential to offer access to a dentist to approximately 95,000 people.
Primary care is a term used to describe community-based health services which are usually the first (and often the only) point of contact that patients make within the NHS. It covers services provided by family doctors (GPs), community and practice nurses, community therapists (physio, occupational, etc.), pharmacists, chiropodists, optometrists, and dentists.
A Primary Care Trust in the NHS is a regional body in the NHS, catering to a specific geographical region, which is responsible for providing primary care to the individuals within that area.
These primary care trusts have budgetary responsibility, and are tasked by the Department of Health with improving the health of the community, securing the provision of high quality services, and integrating health and social care locally.
