Agenda item

This report and accompanying presentation invites the Health and Wellbeing Board to discuss the Primary Care Strategy 2024 and Sustainable Local Care Five Year Plan and proposals for community pharmacy and dental services and impact on Medway health and wellbeing.

Discussion:

The Board received a presentation which provided an update on the Primary Care Strategy 2024 and Sustainable Local Care Five Year Plan and proposals for Community Pharmacy and Dental Services.

Members then raised a number of questions and comments, which included:

Concern was raised regarding the closure of pharmacies in areas of Medway where there were small numbers of pharmacies and lack of late night services in growing population areas.

Residents continued to highlight issues with the ability to access National Health Service (NHS) dental services. The public health team worked extensively on raising awareness on the need to access dental services form a young age, but this was an issue that had to be addressed collectively. Increased focus was needed on improving engagement and raising awareness of eligibility for free service.

There was increased need for support for pharmacies to join the pharmacy first programme and support to address limitations such as training and availability of technology. Maritime Health Partnership had been used as a case study to highlight what could be achieved through the extensive use of technology. Other services needed the support and ability to be able to fund technology to achieve the same outcomes. This could be a barrier for pharmacies, who had to fund their own technology infrastructure, to join the pharmacies first programme. It was confirmed that 49 pharmacies had signed up to the programme.

In response to a question on what strategy was in place for public engagement, the Board was informed that all work undertaken to date was centred around patients’ abilities to access services in accordance with their needs.

It was commented that that there was apparent an over reliance on the NHS and it would be beneficial in the longer term to explore alternative measures that decreased the reliance on the NHS, as not exploring other means of service provision was limiting.

It was commented that roles of services had changed and evolved over the last 10 years. and from a training and educational perspective of higher educational institutions, it was vital to determine local need in order to assist institutions in recruiting onto programmes. This could then assist to address issues with future maintenance of a sustainable workforce.

The officer agreed that it would be prudent to build on knowledge of needs and utilising that to drive measures to grow a sustainable workforce.

Members of the Board from various partnerships and invited guests extended opportunities to work with officers through various aspects of the work of their organisations, in order to foster and strengthen relationships to help drive forward the aspirations of the strategy.

It was added that the Pharmacy First programme was a sizeable change on delivery of health care and there must be some level of caution erred. There was also a challenge to ensure appropriate training for all pharmacies involved in the programme.

In response to a comment that GPs were trusted in the community, and it was vital that they felt comfortable with pharmacies providing services for smaller conditions, officers agreed that there was a need to work on building confidence.

Decision:

The Board agreed that:

a)    Officers look into working with Charities and how the Voluntary Sector can support the work of the strategy.

b)    Officers to work with Healthwatch to promote the work of the Pharmacies First programme

c)    Further engagement and consultation with the community in dentistry needs by the ICB was needed.

d)    Officers to work with Canterbury University on training and programme needs.

e)     Officers to work with the public health team on their offer on needs analysis using data and intelligence gathered by the team.