Agenda and minutes

At this point Members are asked to declare any personal or prejudicial interests they may have in the business on this agenda. A list of general personal interests previously declared are attached.

Members were invited to declare at this point in the meeting any personal or prejudicial interests they might have in the business on the agenda.

No interests were declared further to the standing personal, non-prejudicial interests declared at previous meetings and circulated with the agenda.

To approve and sign the minutes of the last meeting of the Committee held on 16 June 2008.

With reference to Minute 4 (Update on Establishing a LINk 2008/09) resolution (iii) the Chair confirmed that the North Bank Forum facilitated workshop was in the process of being organised by Nigel Burchell. In relation to resolution (iv) that he had received a helpful and informative briefing from the LGIU relating to overview and scrutiny and LINks.

With reference to Minute 5 (Work Planning for Health Scrutiny 2008) the Scrutiny Officer reminded the Committee that Dr Lethem had made a presentation, at the informal training session on 27 June 2008, on work being carried out by the PCT on the prevention of falls (copy attached to the minutes). This had been included on the Committee’s work plan for September but as this had been covered by Dr Lethem it could now be removed.

RESOLVED:             That the minutes of the last meeting of the Committee held on 16 June 2008 be approved and signed by the Chair as a correct record subject to the removal from the Committee’s work plan of receipt of a ‘report from the PCT on falls prevention in September 2008’.

The Chair welcomed Patrick Crowley to the meeting, as the newly appointed Chief Executive of the York Hospitals NHS Trust based at York Hospital.

At this point in the meeting members of the public who have registered their wish to speak regarding an item on the agenda or an issue within the Committee’s remit can do so. Anyone who wishes to register or requires further information is requested to contact the Democracy Officer on the contact details listed at the foot of this agenda. The deadline for registering is Friday 4 July 2008 at 5.00pm.

It was reported that there had been one registrations to speak at the meeting under the Council’s Public Participation Scheme from Mike Beckett, the newly appointed Director of York and District Mind.

He spoke on Agenda Item 5 the Dementia Review – Scoping Report and stated that he wished to support the review. He confirmed that he was delighted that it had been suggested that Mind should be chosen as one of the consultees for the proposed “evidence gathering day” on 1 September 2008. He circulated copies of a leaflet produced by York and District Mind concerning exercise and mood, which detailed the benefits of exercise to relieve anxiety and stress.

This report provides Members with an update on the provision of NHS dental services in York.

Consideration was given to an update report on the provision of NHS dental services in York. The report was part of ongoing consultation between Members and the various Health Trusts.

Members were reminded that at their meeting on 3 December 2007 they had requested the inclusion of the following information in future updates:

·        Information from the Office of National Statistics on numbers of people who did not see a dentist at all.

·        How long patients waited to be allocated an NHS dentist and how much additional capacity was being created as opposed to additional capacity being made available when patients moved on.

·        A report back on progress with commissioning a Sunday morning emergency dental clinic.

Amanda Brown, Assistant Director of Commissioning and Service Development – PCT, attended the meeting and gave Members a short presentation on the provision of NHS Dental Services in York (copy attached to minutes).

The presentation related to the North Yorkshire and York commissioning plans. She reported that the Oral Health Commissioning Group had reviewed commissioning across North Yorkshire relative to population, density and deprivation. This information was then matched to numbers on the dental access database; the exercise had identified geographic areas where commissioned access was below average in England.

Points that she raised included:

·        The maps detailed the existing contracted levels in North Yorkshire and these showed that the York area was generally well served;

·        York had 4 units of dental activity per person commissioned;

·        Provision was not as good west of the city and in the rural areas;

·        People who worked in York but lived outside the city were taking up dental care in York;

·        The PCT were looking to commission services in other areas to create capacity in York;

·        Dental Access Database – over 2000 patients had been assigned to a dentist between September 2007 and May 2008, with a further 1200 being assigned since May;

·        65% of the population sought an NHS dentist with the remainder being split between private care and those using emergency services;

·        Confirmed that the PCT had no records of how many patients were visiting private dentists;

·        The out of hours dental service was not adequate in York, there was only a Saturday and Sunday morning service available but this was currently under review;

·        Confirmed that the PCT hoped that patients would sign up with a dentist for preventative care rather than only using emergency services;

·        A unit of dental activity was the contract currency with dentists (NHS treatment broken down into 3 bands 1 unit for examinations, x-rays, scale and polish, 2 units for fillings and 3 units for crowns and bridges);

·        2006/07 - 50% of contact work had not been completed. Some dentists had been asked to complete the work the following year and others had had the money clawed back;

·        Patient’s time on the waiting list had reduced; the original wait had been 6 months;

·        Confirmed morale of dentists was pretty poor generally across the country.

Members made the following comments:

·        There had been  ...  view the full minutes text for item 10.

This scoping report gives details of the dementia review which will look at the experience of older people with mental health problems (and their families/carers) who access general health services for secondary care in order to identify where improvements may be required.

Members considered this scoping report which would look at the experience of older people with mental health problems, including their families and carers, who accessed general health services for secondary care in order to identify where improvements may be required.

It was agreed to defer further consideration as to whether to co-opt specialist members to the Committee for the duration of the review until the next meeting.

Consideration was given to inviting a representative of the North Bank Forum to the meeting.  The Chair confirmed that Annie Thompson would not be taking up her post as the new LINk Co-ordinator until 28 July 2008 but that he would welcome her input in to the work of the Committee in the future. It was confirmed that, in the meantime, representatives of the disbanded Patients Involvement Forum would have input into this work.

RESOLVED:   (i) That approval be given to the proposed timescale and timetable for the dementia review;

(ii)That approval be given for the proposed consultation method as suggested in paragraphs 6-9 of the report;

(iii)That further consideration be given to the appointment of ‘specialist’ members to be co-opted to the Committee for the duration of the review at the next meeting;

REASON:                  To ensure compliance with scrutiny procedures, protocols and work plans.