On Wednesday 09 October the South West London Integrated Care Board dental leads brought together a range of dental and non-dental stakeholders to look into the ambitions for NHS dentistry in south west London.
This was the first of a number of small scale meetings bringing together key stakeholders to understand the aspirations for dentistry in the area, assess the issues and discuss the solutions.
As the first meeting this was very much a scoping exercise, and builds on the engagement with the LDC over the last year. Since the ICB took over dental commissioning progress has been necessarily slow on implementing changes. It has taken time for the reforms to settle down, people to come into position and for relationships to be built. And built they have been. The LDC was instrumental in helping the ICB set up a dentistry working group and task and finish group which has been looking at a new pilot model to support integration. More information on this pilot will be presented in a future blog.
The attendance was limited, and selective. Representatives from the local authorities, LDC, Community Dental Services, Oral Health Promotion, Dental Commissioning Hub and the Integrated Care Board as well as observers from the Department of Health and Social Care. This was to keep things focussed and future meetings will no doubt broaden attendance in light of the discussions.
The Dentistry Day was opened by our colleagues at local Healthwatch who explained the feedback they receive from patients, what the barriers are as well as an assessment of the commissioning day. They showed the significant variation in per capita allocation of UDAs, and the lack of a needs assessment, with commissioning remaining unchanged since its implementation in 2006. They concluded with the simple statement that more NHS dentistry is required.
The interface of oral health to the rest of health, the factors affecting oral health and behaviours were also explored in detail. A strong emphasis on integration and prevention was presented. This was echoed by the local authorities who explained each local authority activity on oral health promotion.
Ritesh Gajree, LDC Director for Croydon, was asked to explain about the realities of life for a dentist working in NHS primary care. This helped focus the minds of everyone in the room on the practicalities, and most importantly on the need for action. Ritesh was clear that this conversation has been had, and it does not need to be had again. Instead what the profession needs is to know it has been heard and for actions to be taken to start addressing the problems. Many of these issues stem from the national contract and so are not in the power of the ICB itself to amend. But, there are levers it can use to make things better in the short term from the use of flexible commissioning, to being responsive to individual practice issues.
This day was a further step in the LDC’s continued positive engagement with the ICB. We will continue to press for improvements that safeguard the future of NHS dentistry in south west London in line with our vision; “For local dentists to be empowered to provide the care their patients require with a supportive local network and NHS contract”, and our mission: “To provide an open and transparent environment for dentists to be able to provide the best care for their patients under their NHS contract by building effective local relationships and a supportive network of peers.” Our way of working is to “work at the local level to build relationships with key local stakeholders to achieve changes which will help dentists deliver the care their patients need and value. By building these relationships we will create a wide network of supporters for dental services to ensure the long term viability of our profession. We will provide opportunities for any local dentist who is interested to be involved in local work, to help create the next generation of leaders in dentistry. We are here to help local dentists when a network of peer support is required.”
If you want to be involved and are interested in playing a part in the future of NHS dentistry in South West London be sure to keep an eye on our newsletters and attend our Annual General Meeting for more information.
