Presentation of the Integrated Care Board – Director of Place (Darlington)
Minutes:
The Integrated Care Board – Director of Place (Darlington) provided members with a presentation to cover Primary Care Dental Access Recovery and Developing an Oral Health Strategy in the North East and North Cumbria.
Members were informed that the procurement process has commenced with the view to open an Eastbourne dental practice – all going smoothly it is anticipated that the practice will open in early 2025 with urgent provision being offered in cases of unscheduled care in the meantime in order to address urgent need.
Members were informed of current challenges including the impact of COVID and increase in new patient demand and the “three phases” approach to tackling such challenges which are:
1. Immediate actions to stabilize services.
2. A more strategic approach to workforce and service delivery
3. Developing an oral health strategy to improve oral health and reduce the pressure on dentistry.
Further areas addressed included the progress in recovering access, 15,000 additional appointment slots in order to provide capacity for patients in greatest clinical need, the incentivised access scheme pilot and which Darlington practices are taking part and regional plans for improving oral health (such as supervised tooth brushing with schools and oral health training to health and social care staff).
Questions were raised that included what percentage of increased funding is expected, this was unknown currently but figures can be provided. A member also asked if it would be possible to have a “quick-reference sheet” produced to help members respond to any queries around water fluoridation, the Director of Public Health confirmed that information will be provided once compiled.
Discussion was held with regards to the 15,000 additional appointments, how they are distributed and the longevity of this scheme, it was confirmed that they are generally applied to those with urgent clinical need and to prioritised groups (such as looked-after children) and is non-recurrent funding (i.e. short-term).
A further discussion was held regarding schools with officers hoping to see school being able to take on messages and incorporate these into their own messaging.
RESOLVED – That members note the content of the update and the presentation provided.
REASON – In order to enable members to cascade this messaging to their networks.