From: Mark Warters
Sent: Monday, November 18, 2024 10:52 AM

Subject: Health and Wellbeing Board Meeting, 20th November.

Morning Ben,

I would like under public participation to forward this piece to be included in the agenda papers for the meeting as I’m unable to attend or participate remotely.

Perhaps the attached correspondence could be added for context as well?

Health and Wellbeing Board.               20th November.           Cllr. Mark Warters.

Following recent correspondence with members of the board it’s disappointing to have not received any replies and I’d be letting residents in my Ward and the wider city down by not following up the question of the clearly overloaded York District Hospital up.

I previously raised questions over capacity at York District Hospital in the current context and with regard to huge future increases in the population of York as proposed in the Local Plan (still to be adopted) when I was on a Health Scrutiny Committee in 2017 and raised concerns at the Local Plan Examination in public in 2022.

I wish to ask what the Health and Wellbeing Board intend to do to address the current situation of the clearly unsatisfactory overloading of York District Hospital and the implications of future housing developments and population growth on that situation.

I look forward to the board discussing the future strategic issues as well as addressing the current issues that are undoubtedly made worse by the failing Primary Care GP system in York where accessibility to a GP is seemingly made as difficult as possible.

Just to give an example as to how Primary Care failings lead to problems at York District Hospital - one old lady in her 90s had three hospital stays earlier this year following two the previous year including a hip fracture from a fall, largely I would venture because of a lack of a GP medication review with repeat prescriptions churned out without health checks/reviews leading to drug interactions and dehydration, her kitchen looked very much like a pharmacists.

Following her last hospital visit and discharge the ‘Hospital at Home’ team looked after her return home and a doctor actually visited her saw all the medication and actually reviewed and removed the vast majority of it leaving her in a much better state than before.

How many other people of all ages are in similar states in York unable to access GP services in a timely or sensible manner and ultimately end up placing significant extra burdens on the hospital services?

I well recall from my time on Health Scrutiny raising concerns over the performance of various GP practises and from what I hear from residents things have only got worse especially with the systems put in place during the pandemic.

So I look forward to seeing how the Health and Wellbeing Board is going to address the current and obvious future problems facing York District Hospital and how the unsatisfactory Primary Healthcare situation is going to be addressed.

Will this matter be on the agenda for your January meeting?

Regards,

Cllr. Mark Warters.