Agenda item

To receive a verbal update report regarding the delivery and future plans for NHS dental services in Blackpool.

The Committee received a presentation from Mr N. Barkworth and Mrs J. Forshaw from NHS England’s Lancashire Area Team, on NHS Dental services in Blackpool.

Members were informed that NHS England took over responsibility for commissioning dental services from Primary Care Trusts in April 2013. At that time, oral health promotion became the responsibility of local authorities as part of the wider transfer of public health responsibilities to upper tier councils.

It was explained that dentistry in Lancashire now had a Local Dental Network (LDN) established to set the strategic direction of oral healthcare, with the core membership made up of representatives from Public Health England, NHS England, Health Education Northwest, primary care dentists and secondary care and special care clinicians.

The Committee was informed that Blackpool had higher than the national average number of children with decayed, missing or filled teeth. This was directly linked with other areas of health inequality such as a high proportion of residents living in deprived areas, poor life expectancy and a high rate of looked after children.

Mr Barkworth explained the various methods open to patients in order to access dental services in Blackpool. These included the central access allocation telephone line and the emergency dental service. It was further explained that dental access was measured by counting the number of unique patients who had visited a dentist in the previous 24 months, with multiple visits counting only once. Measured as a percentage of those who had accessed dentistry for a given resident population, there was an access trajectory for Lancashire that committed NHS England to maintaining access levels at 58.8% for the population of Lancashire. As of December 2014, the access figure for Blackpool was 57.6%. It was explained that the Area Team had been working with dental providers to understand what the barriers were to providing more access within the existing contracts.

Moving on to specific developments within Blackpool, it was explained that there was a need to understand how wider healthcare and social issues, including the transient nature of some of the town’s workforce and residents impacted on oral health and how services could be redesigned to meet specific needs. This was highlighted by the LDN as a priority in terms of addressing the needs of those patients.

Members were informed of a pilot scheme being planned named ‘Steele Red’, which was described as a clinical pathway to provide care for patients who did not want an ongoing relationship with a dentist but went beyond the scope for urgent treatment. The plans were to trial the Steele Red pathway in a practice in South Shore for a period of 12 months. In addition, a work stream was underway to better understand the issues behind the patient experience survey results, utilising links with Healthwatch as well as local providers and patient focus groups.

Mr Barkworth and Mrs Forshaw responded to a number of questions from the Committee. In doing so, the following points were made:

•          The special needs dentist service was currently being reviewed. 

•          It was confirmed that information provided by the Committee, relating to the loss of 2 special needs dentists, would be acted upon and that finances were available for non-recurrent core issues.

•          Although more patients were being admitted into dental practices, there was evidence of longer waiting times for check-ups in some cases. It was accepted that there was finite capacity and that the primary objective was to deliver good oral health and that sometimes, a two month waiting time would not be detrimental.

•          The main difference between ordinary dental practices and those provided at primary care centres was that some of the latter provided unscheduled care during the daytime, with better facilities for patients with additional healthcare needs.

•          There was a stringent applications process for foreign dentists wishing to practice in the UK, with a national system of competency checks in place.

•          A pathway was currently being developed to identify and access children who were classed as hard to reach.

The Committee agreed to note the presentation and report and requested a further update be provided in due course.