Agenda item

To receive an update from the Council’s representative on matters considered at the last meeting (12 July 2022). 

30.1          The Chair indicated that the Gloucestershire Health Overview and Scrutiny Committee had met earlier that day so the Council’s representative had not had time to produce a written report as usual; however, she would give a brief verbal update of the salient points and the written report would be circulated by email following the meeting.

30.2          The Council’s representative on the Gloucestershire Health Overview and Scrutiny Committee advised that an introduction had been provided on the Gloucestershire Integrated Care System which had been established on 1 July 2022.  This replaced the Gloucestershire Clinical Commissioning Group and would be responsible for overseeing the day-to-day running of local NHS health and care services.  The Committee had also received an update on local screening and immunisation services and had been advised that uptake within the county was thought to be good at 75% of the population.  The South West Dental Commissioning Team had provided an update on NHS dentistry as there had been a 21.55% decrease in the number of patients being able to access NHS dental services.  NHS dentistry was priced in units of activity and contracts and pricing was determined nationally.  It was up to practices to decide if they wanted to provide NHS dentistry and a lot had opted not to due to the process being too complicated.  This was a significant national problem, particularly as a lot of practices had closed during the pandemic and chosen not to reopen.  It was reported that Gloucestershire had a shortage of 31 dentists and work was being done to attract students from the two dentistry schools in the south-west at Bristol and Plymouth.  The Committee had also received an update from the South West Ambulance Service Foundation Trust and it was noted that the service covered a population of 5.5 million in the south-west with 23 million visitors, mainly during the summer.  The key issues highlighted were the intense sustained pressure which meant that performance had not returned to pre-pandemic figures; difficulties with provision of the service commissioned; and massive handover delays at general hospitals - the service had lost 10,000 hours in handovers last week compared to an average of 350 hours in a previous year, 10% of which was attributed to hospitals in Gloucestershire.  Hospital Liaison Officers had been appointed to speed up the process with extra triage staff to answer phone calls and signpost to other services where possible.  In Gloucestershire, 37% had been redirected to other services.

30.3          A Member asked if it was intended to bring in more NHS dentists as minor issues could become more serious if left unseen, for instance, a sore throat could turn into an abscess, then septicaemia and a visit to Accident and Emergency which could have been avoided.  The Council representative on the Gloucestershire Health and Care Overview and Scrutiny Committee confirmed that was exactly what was trying to be achieved.  The Member went on to ask questions about the contracting arrangements and the Chair indicated that it may be more beneficial to wait for the full written update and then direct any further questions to the Council’s representative at that point.  The Council’s representative advised that the Health and Care Overview and Scrutiny Committee would be taking a more in-depth look at dentistry over the coming months so there would be more information in due course.

30.4          It was

RESOLVED           That the verbal update from the Council’s representative on the Gloucestershire Health Overview and Scrutiny Committee on matters discussed at its last meeting be NOTED.