General Dental Services (Amendment No. 2) Regulations (Northern Ireland) 2001

Explanatory Note

(This note is not part of the Regulations.)

These Regulations further amend the Health and Personal Social Services General Dental Services Regulations (Northern Ireland) 1993 (“the principal Regulations”) which regulate the terms on which general dental services are provided under the Health and Personal Social Services (Northern Ireland) Order 1972.

The Regulations provide for the establishment of a list of those dentists providing treatment as part of their general dental services to patients under general anaesthesia (regulation 5). This includes a right of appeal where a dentist is denied inclusion in the general anaesthesia list because of the condition of his premises. Regulation 4 introduces a similar right of appeal for a dentist who is denied inclusion in the dental list.

Regulation 6 amends Schedule 2 to the principal Regulations which sets out the dentists' terms of service. It provides that treatment under general anaesthesia as part of general dental services cannot be provided unless the dentist is on the Board’s general anaesthesia list, that general anaesthesia may not form part of treatment which mixes general dental services and private dentistry, and that dentists on the general anaesthesia list must permit inspections of their premises. It also substitutes new categories of those who are permitted to administer general anaesthesia for the purposes of general dental services.

Regulation 7 amends Schedule 5 to the principal Regulations to increase from £230 to £260 the amount specified as the maximum cost, or likely cost, of care and treatment which a dentist may undertake without seeking the prior approval of the Dental Committee.