The DH has announced it will give an extra £11m to ten of the 11 dental teaching hospitals in England, to help fund IT systems that will support the training of dental students.
The funding comes as part of a joint initiative by the Department of Health (DH), NHS Connecting for Health and the Dental IT Programme Board.
In August 2008, all 11 English dental teaching hospitals were invited to bid for a share of the fund. According the DH of the 11 NHS trusts with dental schools only the University Hospitals Bristol NHS Trust failed to apply for funding.
As a result, the £11m funding will be divided between 10 trusts, to fund dental students in the use of clinical computer programmes that they will use in practice.
The DH told E-Health Insider that each trust will have to procure the software systems as appropriate and arrange for training as part of the procurement.
Students will be trained to use patient administration systems, the N3 NHS network, Choose and Book and Picture Archiving and Communications Systems across the NHS Care Record Service. They will also receive training in clinical dental systems and resource management.
Tony Jenner, deputy chief dental officer said: "The NHS now has over 4,000 more dentists than it did in 1997 and we have increased the number of undergraduate training places by 25% to ensure we have more dentists in the areas of the country that need them the most.”
To make sure that they are spending the money correctly, trusts will go through the normal process of performance management. SHAs will undertake the monitoring function for non-foundation trusts, with SHA chief information officers signing off any bids.
The ten trusts which will receive funding are:
• South Birmingham PCT
• University College London Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust
• Guy’s & St Thomas’s Hospital NHS Foundation Trust
• King’s College Hospital NHS Foundation Trust
• Leeds Teaching Hospitals NHS Trust
• Royal Liverpool and Broadgreen University Hospitals NHS Trust
• Central Manchester and Manchester Children’s University Hospitals NHS Trust
• Barts and The London NHS Trust
• Sheffield Teaching Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust
• The Newcastle Upon Tyne Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust.