The Committee will receive an update from the Buckinghamshire, Oxfordshire and Berkshire West (BOB) Integrated Care Board on access to dental care and advice.

The Committee received a report from Hugh O’Keefe, Senior Programme Manager, Pharmacy, Optometry and Dental, Buckingham, Oxfordshire and Berkshire West Integrated Care Board on NHS dental services in Reading.

The report explained that on 1 July 2022 the Buckinghamshire, Oxfordshire and Berkshire West (BOB) Integrated Care Board had taken on delegated responsibility for Dentistry, alongside Pharmacy and Optometry. Integrated Care Boards (ICBs) had an explicit purpose to improve health outcomes for their whole population and the delegation would allow the ICB to integrate services to enable decisions to be taken as close as possible to their residents. The ICB were working to ensure that residents could experience joined up care, with an increased focus on prevention, addressing inequalities and to achieve better access to dental care and advice.

The following points were noted:

• Dental practices delivered services via cash limited contracts with the NHS and were required to deliver agreed levels of activity each year.
• Dental services faced major challenges since the onset of the pandemic including enhanced infection control procedures that had led to reduced dental capacity.
• Since July 2022 practices had returned to full capacity however there remained a backlog of care.
• Since July 2022 practices were recovering from the pandemic and access to NHS dentistry in Reading was recovering better than other parts of the southeast.
• Some practices were choosing to reduce their NHS commitment or were leaving the NHS.
• Contract delivery had dropped to 30% during the pandemic; this was usually around 95%.
• Contract delivery was now in recovery and in Reading was at 88%.

Actions were being taken to address the challenges, these included arrangements for practices to provide Additional Access sessions for patients who struggled to access care and needed urgent treatment.  However, the take up for this scheme had been low with one practice in Reading and one in Buckinghamshire currently involved. Also, a flexible commissioning scheme would support patients to access the system, such as, patients who had not attended a dentist for more than two years, patients relocating, Looked After Children, Asylum seekers and refugees, Families of Armed Forces personnel, and other groups identified by the dental practice.  The pilot scheme was being undertaken from 1 June 2023 to 31 March 2024 and 30 practices in the BOB area were taking part.

There was also a significant backlog of patients that were awaiting treatment in a clinic and hospital for treatment under general anaesthetic.  To help the service Restoration and Re-set monies had been invested with Royal Berkshire Hospital NHS Foundation Trust to provide significant improvements in waiting times.

The Committee thanked Hugh for the information and requested that a further update be provided to the Committee in six months times.

Resolved -    That a further presentation/report be provided to the Committee in six months.