This item was published during the term of a previous administration that ended in April 2007
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Dental premises funding
20/01/2006
A number of NHS dental practices across Scotland will receive funding to modernise their premises and improve services for patients, it was announced today.
£30 million has been allocated to NHS dental practices for 30 premises modernisation projects.
Commenting as he visited a practice in Elgin which benefited from a previous round of premises modernisation funding, Deputy Health Minister Lewis Macdonald said:
"I am delighted to be able to make these announcements today. In real terms they will lead to far better dental facilities and increased access for NHS patients in many parts of Scotland.
"These allocations give NHS Boards the opportunity to improve dental premises or relocate them to new state-of-the art premises in their area. The funding will also be used to bring the training of dental professionals in to the community.
"These investments underline our ongoing commitment to tackle the dental challenges affecting particular areas of Scotland and to deliver services for patients."
The Minister also announced that £4.5 million of the funding announced through the Executive's Dental Action Plan for rent reimbursement and increased General Dental Practitioner (GDP) allowances, will reach NHS committed dentists today.
He said:
"I have made it absolutely clear that my priorities are to reward dentists who are committed to the NHS and to restore the balance so that patients who want to access NHS dental services can do so, wherever they live in Scotland.
"I am pleased that NHS committed dentists will receive the first main instalment of extra funding through our Action Plan. With the tens of thousands of pounds of additional funding individual dentists are now to receive, inadequate funding is quite clearly no longer an excuse to deregister NHS patients."
The First Minister announced at the opening of the new Bonnyrigg Medical Centre on 15 August 2005 that a total of £65 million was now being committed for use across 2006-07 and 2007-08 to further capital projects to develop infrastructure used for the delivery of Primary and Community Care. The Minister for Health and Community Care announced on 18 August 2005 that the first tranche from this new programme would be £30 million towards the building of new dental facilities, in respect of which an invitation to bid was issued on 26 August 2005.
A total of £30 million has been allocated to NHS Boards for successful dental capitol projects bids, under the Primary and Community Care Premises Modernisation Programme (PCCPMP). Across Scotland as a whole there will be 30 projects. These include new 'treat and teach' centres in Dumfries, Coatbridge and Perth, which will both address areas of dental need and will modernise the training of dental professionals by increasing the amount of their training which is conducted in the community. See full list below.
Elgin's West End dental practice is a salaried dental practice located within Dr Gray's Hospital which opened in August 2003. An initial waiting list for the practice was set up with in excess of 2300 potential patients. Over 1300 of these patients have already been provided with dental treatment along with a significant amount of emergency treatments for non-registered patients. The Executive authorised a further capital grant of £160,000 to extend the practice in May 2005. This will increase the practice by a further two surgeries and provide an extensive decontamination system meeting the requirements of the latest guidelines.
The new practice at Bilbohall, Elgin will be a seven surgery integrated community dental/salaried GDP service. It will receive funding of £1.582 million and provide a base for improved oral health development in the area.
Dental Action Plan funding reaching dentists today includes £3.2 million in financial support for their own premises' rental costs (rent reimbursement), plus increases of £1.3 million in increased GDP allowances. The general dental practice allowance which supports practice costs is paid quarterly. The rent reimbursement being paid is an interim payment. When all practice valuations have been completed by our independent valuers there will be reconciliation and a further payment will be made based on the nominal rent of the premises set by the valuer.
Scottish Executive figures show that more than one third of the 1900 non-salaried general dental practitioners in Scotland have gross NHS earnings of between £100,000 and £250,000 a year, and two thirds continue to have significant earnings from NHS dentistry.
We announced a massive funding package in March 2005 - an extra £295 million over three years, of which 80 per cent will go directly to high-street GDPs - no other Government in history has invested so much in Scotland's dental care. This will build up over three years, from £200 million in 2004/05 to £350 million by 2007/08.
Full list of NHS dental premises to benefit from funding:
NHS Argyll & Clyde
- Dykebar Hospital £180,000
- Russell Institute, Paisley £210,000
NHS Ayrshire & Arran
- NW Kilmarnock £1,415,000
- Kilbirnie £437,000
NHS Borders
- Hawick £1,060,128
- Borders General Hospital site, Melrose £1,070,000
NHS Dumfries and Galloway
- Dumfries Dental Centre £2,372,000
NHS Fife
- Emergency Dental Triage Centre £300,000
- Cowdenbeath Dental Centre £900,000
- Cupar £450,000
- Dovecot Clinic, Glenrothes £150,000
- Leslie £300,000
- Dunfermline Eastern Expansion £1,500,000
NHS Forth Valley
- Langlees Dental Centre, Falkirk £425,000
NHS Grampian
- Bilbohall, Elgin £1.582m
- Buckie & Keith Modular units £204,000/£204,000
- Foresterhill: Aberdeen Outreach Training Centre £2m
NHS Greater Glasgow
- Completion of Glasgow Primary Care Treatment Centre £900,000 Plean St. Clinic Replacement, Yoker £1,740,000
NHS Highland
- Inverness East £325,000
- Portree £225,000
- Grantown £475,000
- Fort William £345,000
NHS Lanarkshire
- Coatbridge Dental Centre £4,426,000
- Extension to Greenhills Health Centre, East Kilbride £420,000 Extension to Biggar HC, £500,000
NHS Lothian
- NHS Dental Access Centre, Bonnyrigg, Midlothian £932,687
- New Clinical Facility in Edinburgh Dental Institute £1,548,000
NHS Tayside
- Dundee Primary Care Dental Access Centre- £450,000
- Integrated Dental Treatment and Training Centre, Perth £3,000,000