Cllr Hanna will provide a verbal update on relevant issues since the last meeting.
The Committee is recommended to NOTE the Chair’s update having raised any relevant questions.
Minutes:
The Chair referred back to the theme of NHS dentistry access as emphasised in Cllr Bethia Thomas’s aforementioned statement, specifying that this was a significant area of focus for the Committee. The Chair also proceeded to highlight the following points:
1. The Committee had been hearing more about the difficulties that residents were experiencing with NHS dentistry access.
2. The Committee had looked into dentistry provision in Oxfordshire as a formal scrutiny item earlier this year, and committed to following this up with an additional update.
3. As per an Action from the Committee’s dentistry item held in April 2023, the Chair would hold a meeting with the relevant Cabinet Member to discuss the challenges around NHS dentistry in more depth, and to provide feedback from the Committee’s understandings and works around the area of dentistry provision.
4. The Committee should continue to pursue a recommendation it previously made to NHS England and the ICB regarding the prospect of utilising underspends in Oxfordshire creatively so as to help provide improvements to dentistry services.
The BOB ICB Place Director for Oxfordshire highlighted that an innovative approach to utilising funding differently had recently been launched, which was to possibly manifest into the new flexible commissioning model adopted by the ICB.
The Chair emphasised that where Dentistry deserts did exist, it would be useful to consider investments of any potential underspends into these areas to ensure continuity of access to NHS dentistry services for local residents.
The Chair also referred to an issue highlighted by Healthwatch Oxfordshire, which related to websites for NHS dentistry services needing to be updated.
The Chair also enquired as to whether there was any process that allowed for the ICB to know with sufficient notice in advance that a dental practice would reduce NHS services, as doing so may enable the ICB to adopt measures to reduce the prospect of more NHS dentistry deserts emerging throughout the County. It was AGREED with the Committee that the BOB ICB Place Director will provide some further information on this to the Committee.
The Chair then pertained to the co-production exercise that was occurring within the Wantage and Grove area in relation to the closure of the community beds at Wantage Community Hospital. The Chair reiterated that the Committee would receive a formal update on this in its meeting in November 2023, and referred to how this was an ongoing co-production journey, with the Committee’s Wantage Community Hospital Working Group having received monthly check-ins from the ICB and Oxford Health around the nature and effectiveness of the co-production exercise.
The Chair stated that the ICB and Oxford Health requested an extra two weeks for the public engagement exercise, and the community’s representatives were pleased with this. The Chair also expressed that her and the Scrutiny Officer were happy for the additional two weeks to be added to the engagement exercise as it was felt that the quality of the co-production, which should be the most crucial outcome, was not to be undermined.