Agenda and minutes

To receive any apologies for absence

Apologies for absence were submitted from Adrian Mather and Alison Swaddle.

To receive any declarations of interest

There were no declarations of interest received.

To answer any public questions

A period of 30 minutes will be allowed for members of the public to ask questions submitted under notice.

The Council welcomes questions from members of the public about the work of this committee.

Subject to meeting certain timescales, questions can relate to general issues concerned with the work of the Committee or an item which is on the Agenda for this meeting.  For full details of the procedure for submitting questions please contact the Democratic Services Section on the numbers given below or go to www.wokingham.gov.uk/publicquestions

There were no public questions.

To answer any member questions

There were no Member questions.

To receive a report regarding NHS Dental Services in Wokingham.

The Committee received an update on NHS Dental Services in Wokingham from Hugh O’Keeffe, Senior Commissioning Manager, Dental NHS England (BOB & Frimley, Susan Whiting, Director of Integration & Delegation of Direct Commissioning, BOB ICB, David Chapman, System Clinical Lead for Pharmacy Optometry & Dental Services, and Nilesh Patel, Chair-Thames Valley Local Dental Network.

During the discussion of this item, the following points were made:

·       On 1 July 2022 the programme of delegation of direct commissioned services took place and the ICB had assumed responsibility for community pharmacy, optometry and dental services.  The ICB was working closely with NHS England, with a focus on identifying local solutions to issues such as access to services.

·       Members were informed that local commissioning of NHS dental services had begun in 2006, starting with the Primary Care Trusts.  The Primary Care Trusts had brought in the new dental contracts in 2006, introducing cash limited budgets for dental services.

·       Dental public health services were commissioned by the PCT until 2013 when it then became the responsibility of local authorities.

·       Clinical advice to commissioning was provided via Local Dental Networks (LDNs) and specialty Managed Clinical Networks (MCNs) from 2013.

·       ICB/NHSE officers were working in partnership in 2022 – 2023.  From 2023 NHSE officers would be transferring to the ICBs

·       Hugh O’Keeffe provided an update on oral health.

·       Tooth decay was the most common reason for childhood admission to hospital, with approximately 40,000 per year admitted pre pandemic, nationally.

·       98% people had gum disease of some sort.

·       Oral cancer was an ongoing issue. 

·       Higher risk groups (deprivation; ethnicity; age; people with learning disabilities; prison population) were at greater risk of poor oral health.  Poor oral health had links with other diseases such as cardiovascular disease and diabetes.

·       Hugh O’Keeffe emphasised that patients were not registered with a dental practice and could attend any practice they wished.  Dentists were only responsible for patients during a course of treatment.

·       Dental practices had cash limited contracts with annual activity targets (Units of Dental Activity) which were linked to banded treatments.  A certain amount of activity had to be undertaken each year to ensure funding levels were retained.  If the practice underperformed against these targets the money came back to the NHS.  The following year what was required to be achieved was reset.

·       Investment into dental care was based on the 2006 baseline with additional new investment.  When the new contract came into effect in 2006 a number of practices had chosen not to continue with NHS work and had become private.  Several of these had been based in Wokingham Borough.

·       Referral pathways to specialist services were underpinned by commissioning guides.  About 80% of referrals were to non-hospital services such as primary care orthodontics, community based dental services, and community based oral surgery.

·       It was noted that about 66% of investment was into primary care services.  Wokingham investment was lower than Berkshire West and South-East

·       Contract delivery rates in Thames Valley were highlighted.

·       With regards to access to services, a Dental Access  ...  view the full minutes text for item 37.