Agenda and draft minutes

Apologies for absence were received from Councillors Ball and Sajed Hussain.

There were no public questions for this meeting of the Committee to consider.

To consider the Minutes of the meeting of Health Scrutiny Committee held 18^th October 2022.

Resolved:

That the Minutes of the meeting of the Health Scrutiny Committee, held 18^th October 2022 be approved, as a correct record.

The Committee scrutinised a report of the Place Lead – Oldham, NHS Greater Manchester Integrated Care, which informed members of the current position in respect of access to General Practice in Oldham and presented the national and local context in respect of access to General Practice and provides locality data and actions that are being taken.

The Committee considered the numbers of GPs in the Borough. In 2017, there were 143 GPs, excluding locums and trainee doctors, in Oldham, working across 44 practices. According to the latest NHS Digital data, there were currently 140 GPs working across 39 practices. This data reflected the national picture of a stagnation in the growth of the number of GPs since 2015.

In February 2020 the Government had announced a drive to recruit an additional 6,000 GPs by 2024. However, these initiatives had not yet had the desired impact on increasing the number of qualified GPs – in fact, numbers have continued to decline nationally. In the same period, the number of patients registered with a practice in Oldham had increased from 246,039 to 262,400. This was also a trend that was reflected nationally.

In recent years, there had been several national objectives aimed at increasing both the number of staff in general practice and the variety of roles. The emphasis on workforce had began to move to ensure that patients see the right person in the right place, first time. During the Covid-19 pandemic, patients had seen a move by practices towards “triage systems” which helped to direct them to the most appropriate clinical professional to meet their needs. There has also been an un-precented increase in the use of digital systems and remote consultations. Since the lifting of Covid-19 related restrictions practices have retained this technology and ‘digital first’ as an option although patients should now be triaged first and offered a face to face or digital appointment as appropriate.

An important fact to consider when looking at the number of GPs working at practices was that different providers used different staffing models: there was no mandated workforce model for general practice and providers could choose the blend of staff which they thought would best meet the needs of their patients. Whilst GPs continue to be the pivot point for practices, the roles carried out by nurses, pharmacists, healthcare support workers and other clinical professionals were considered just as vital. High quality care depended on all of these roles, underpinned by the inestimable contribution of the practice administrative staff.

It was reported that from 1^st October 2022, Primary Care Networks (PCNs) have been required to provide Enhanced Access between the hours of 6.30pm and 8.00pm Mondays to Fridays and between 9.00am and 5.00pm on Saturdays (“Network Standard Hours”), in accordance with the requirements set out in the Primary Care Network Direct Enhanced Service (DES) Specification.

The Primary Care Networks in Oldham succeeded in mobilising the Enhanced Access service in their networks by 1^st October 2022. Whilst national IT, estates  ...  view the full minutes text for item 6.

Chair of HealthWatch Oldham to report

The Chair introduced Mr Tamoor Tariq, the Manager of Healthwatch Oldham, who presented their Annual Report 2021/22. The report highlighted key milestones that had been achieved in the year and looked forward to new challenges that the organisation would face in the future.

2021/22 had been another year which, for Healthwatch Oldham had been significantly impacted by Covid-19. Healthwatch Oldham staff have had to adapt – continuing to provide the Healthwatch service by working from home and by managing the move to their new base, at Medtia Place, on Union Street, Oldham. Despite these ongoing challenges, Healthwatch has continued to listen to the local community to make sure their voices are heard and acted on. An example of this is their Greater Manchester Dental Report – a supplemental report was issued in August 2021. During the COVID-19 pandemic, people across Greater Manchester were telling their local Healthwatch groups that they were experiencing difficulties accessing NHS dental services. Across Greater Manchester, local Healthwatch organisations experienced a six-fold increase in enquiries regarding NHS dentistry and nearly 98% of these enquiries raised issues of accessibility. Oldham’s Healthwatch continued to consult with the Oldham public, trying hard to reach out to communities that were not heard as often as others.

By conducting a bi-monthly survey called the Healthwatch Oldham 100, Healthwatch continued to obtain views from local people on a range of subjects. The findings from these surveys heled them to identify trends within service delivery and provide information to guide them on areas to examine further. Healthwatch were able to run People’s Choice Awards for the second year running, to celebrate the hard work, that people throughout all health and social care services, delivered to the residents of Oldham.

Healthwatch had published their report looking into people's experiences of accessing services whilst living with cancer during COVID-19 and had acted on feedback, to drive change to make a difference to people’s experiences. Towards the end of 2021 the organisation had had the opportunity to work in partnership with the Oldham Safeguarding Adults Team to produce a Wheelchair Users - Understanding How Accessibility Works for You Report. This was a survey that was designed to be a starting point to highlight and understand peoples' experiences of accessibility when they have a physical disability.

All the reports mentioned above were available for the public to view on the Healthwatch website. The Committee were advised that none of the work detailed in the report would be possible without the dedication of their staff and volunteers.

Members of the Committee considered the Healthwatch annual report in detail and requested that details of outcomes be presented to meetings of this Committee for consideration.

The Manager of Healthwatch Oldham stated that in other local authorities, across Greater Manchester, local Healthwatch representatives received a standing invite to attend meetings of their local council’s Health Scrutiny Committee (or equivalent body).  

Resolved:

1.    That Healthwatch Oldham’s Annual Report 2021/22 be noted.

2.    That the Manager of Healthwatch Oldham be requested to submit  ...  view the full minutes text for item 7.

The Committee received a report inviting consideration of the Committee’s Work Programme for 2022/23 as at 6^th December 2022.

Resolved:

That the Health Scrutiny Committee’s Work Programme 2022/23 be noted.

Key Decisions scheduled to be taken by the Council/Cabinet.

The Committee considered the latest Key Decision Document which set out the Authority’s Key Decisions scheduled to be made from 11^th November 2022.

Resolved:

That the Key Decision Document be noted.