Harrow
Rita Bagga, Director for Harrow, met with local leads from Harrow Council and the Integrated Neighbourhood Health Team to discuss the current dental pilots and future engagement and integration of dentistry with local plans. The Council is working with pilot practices to widen participation, and is supportive of coordinated efforts on oral health, such as improved information sharing about oral health promotion plans. The Integrated Care Board has recently merged with the North Central London ICB, creating the West North London ICB, resulting in a restructure at the local level. The Integrated Neighbourhood Health Team is, however, very supportive of understanding the relationship of oral health to overall health, and how better integration of dental care could help manage systemic disease.
Hammersmith and Fulham
Sid Handa, Director for Hammersmith and Fulham, met with the ICB’s Borough Director to discuss the recent changes to the NHS Dental contract and to discuss greater LDC and dental involvement in local initiatives. They discussed access to NHS dentistry and Sid made the case for greater investment, arguing that it is not awareness of dentistry which is the problem but capacity. As with other local meetings it was agreed that the Integrated Neighbourhood Teams were becoming increasingly important and represented an opportunity for improved co-working in primary care.
Hounslow
Priya Bilakhia, Director for Hillingdon, met with the integrated health team in Hillingdon. The current paediatric and health inclusion pilots were discussed. The integrated health team was interested in working more closely with dentistry and understanding about dental practices could support local priorities. In particular they discussed whether dental practices represented an opportunity for increased blood pressure monitoring to tackle the rise in hypertension in the borough. The LDC will continue to work with the team to develop this proposal.
Local Pharmaceutical Committee
Emilie Szasz and Payal Shah met with the representatives of the Local Pharmaceutical Committees in north west London to discuss closer co-working and priority sharing. The LDC and LPCs shared concerns over the lack of representation on the recently formed Primary Care Collaborative and will be writing to the Collaborative to recommend formal representation. The LPCs and LDC will also work together with the ICB and Collaborative to explore what powers are required from commissioning bodies and what regulatory changes are needed to make integrated working a reality for pharmacy and dentistry.
Managed Clinical Networks
Renal Patel, local lead in Hounslow, met with May Indrakumar and Natalie Bradley, the Deputy MCN Chairs for Paediatrics and Special Care Dentistry in NWL to discuss issues of mutual interest. This included improving referrals and sharing information on integrated ways of working to try to improve the overall efficiency in services. The Special Care Dentistry MCN will be hosting a webinar in the summer and more details will be shared shortly.
