Issue - meetings

14.1     The Committee considered a report from NHS Sussex providing a progress update on work underway to enhance routine and urgent dental care access for people across the county.

14.2     The Chair requested that future reports from all NHS organisations should reference data that covered East Sussex only and avoid Sussex-wide data wherever possible.

14.3     The Committee commented that the current levels of provision were unacceptably low and asked how NHS Sussex were working to increase the number of units of dental activity (UDA) across the county.

14.4     Charlotte Keeble, NHS SussexDirector of Primary, Community and Urgent Care Commissioning outlined that nationally the Government had committed to review the NHS dental contract and address known challenges with it which currently presented issues for dental professionals. Locally, there were challenges attracting new NHS dentists to the area, and NHS Sussex was undertaking targeted action to address this. This included uplifting the minimum UDA rate and engaging with local dental providers to encourage them to overdeliver on their NHS contracts, which they were able to do by up to 10%. Providers had also been encouraged to take on temporary UDA, as sometimes they did not want to take these on permanently. An urgent dental care ‘test and learn’ pilot approach, which combined UDA and sessional payments, encouraging providers to take on more complex patients, had proven popular and been extended for the rest of the year. Given there had been five dental contract hand backs in East Sussex, there were plans to hold a market engagement event in Lewes in November to both procure new contracts and understand what would encourage greater take up from providers.

14.5     Nish Suchak, General Dental Practitioner and Chair of the East Sussex Local Dental Committee outlined that the current national contract meant that where practices failed to deliver their number of UDA in a year, they were required to make these up the following year, and the contract was not fit for purpose. There was insufficient funding for the system to meet the level of need and the national contract did not provide sufficient funding to support dentistry practices’ costs, including staff.

14.6     Cllr Turner suggested that dentists should be required to accept new patients onto their books even if they were full, just as GPs were required to do. Nish Suchak commented that dentists were unable to take on more patients because the funding they received from the NHS was ringfenced and cannot afford to do any more NHS work.

14.7     The Committee commented that some people struggled to pay for certain treatments and asked how these people could be better supported.

14.8     Charlotte Keeble commented that NHS Sussex supported there being reforms made to the national contract. The feedback from dental professionals had identified three key drivers causing contract hand backs, which were the low UDA rate, the NHS dental contract and workforce recruitment and retention. NHS Sussex had tried to address these challenges where it was able to, but there were structural  ...  view the full minutes text for item 14

25.1     The Committee received a report which provided an update on access to Primary Care services in East Sussex, including GP appointments and surgeries, and access to NHS Dentistry.

25.2     The Committee asked what is going to change to increase access to regular NHS Dentistry appointments.

25.3     Amy Galea, Chief Primary Care Officer NHS Sussex, outlined that there two elements in the report that address this question. One is the number of units of NHS Dentistry activity commissioned across East Sussex and the other is an increase units of activity post pandemic at two dental practices, one in Hastings and the other in St. Leonards who have capacity to offer more NHS appointments. In the longer term the hope is that the reforms announced by Government will increase access. NHS Sussex is also exploring with dental practices what flexibility there is locally across East Sussex to increase access and what NHS Sussex can do to support this. NHS Dentistry has previously been commissioned through a national contract before it was delegated to NHS Sussex and NHS Sussex is working with colleagues in NHS England to see what can be done to improve access. NHS Dentistry is facing some of the same workforce challenges and pressures that the rest of the NHS is facing.

25.4     In terms of access to GP appointments, the Committee asked if online booking and e-consult services are widely available across East Sussex.

25.5     Amy Galea responded that although GP appointment levels are at the same level or higher than before the pandemic, there is some variability across East Sussex in the offer from GP practices and the tools they use. Although online booking and e-consult can be incredibly helpful, some practices have taken the decision not to use them and ‘switch them off’. All practices across East Sussex have the ability to use these facilities and NHS Sussex is trying to ensure that all GP practices are offering them to their patients by the end of January 2023. NHS Sussex is working with practices to improve the publicity of these facilities by including information on their web sites and include them within the literature and leaflets they give out within their practices. The other way of accessing GP services is through the NHS App and around 60% of people in East Sussex are using the app, which allows you to book an appointment at your GP practice.

25.6     The Committee asked if booking GP appointments by telephone will be restricted to particular times (e.g. 8.00am to 9.00am as some practices do) or will can people ring anytime.

25.7     Amy Galea outlined that NHS Sussex is aware that some practices only make e-consult available at some times of the day and are trying to make sure this additional functionality is available at all times of the day. The reason for this is that practices need time to think through how they are going to manage the different forms of access and communication channels with the resources they  ...  view the full minutes text for item 25