Issue - meetings

Access to Primary Care, Dental Care & Oral Health Promotion

Meeting: 28/02/2024 - Health & Adult Social Care Scrutiny Panel (Item 4)

4 Access to Primary Care Dental Care and Oral Health Promotion pdf icon PDF 555 KB

To receive the report of the Executive Director – People, providing an overview of primary care dental care and oral health promotion provision for Enfield residents; understanding about residents’ oral health needs; and highlighting how the Local Authority, North Central London Integrated Care System and NHS England are working together to improve oral health.

Minutes:

Cllr Alev Cazimoglu (Cabinet Member for Health and Social Care) and Dudu Sher-Arami (Director of Public Health) introduced the report of the Executive Director – People, identifying the dental care needs in Enfield and oral health promotion activity in the borough.

 

A detailed presentation was received from:

Dr Rakhee Patel (Public Health and Primary Care / Lead for Ageing Well and Dental Public Health, NHS England London Office)

Kelly Nizzer (representative of the London Dentistry, Optometry and Pharmacy Commissioning hub)

Mark Eaton (Director of Strategic Commissioning & Procurement, NHS NCL ICB)

 

Enfield was near the London average of one in four children having some untreated dental decay and in hospital admissions for dental caries. However, Enfield had the highest average number of extracted teeth and third highest average number of filled teeth in five-year-olds in London: this was noted as a positive indication of access to dental care.

 

The ICB inherited dentistry from NHS England in 2023 and had been proactive and supportive, with additional investment and encouraging dentists to do more activity. The dental services available in Enfield, including community, urgent, and secondary services were highlighted.

 

The effects of the Covid-19 pandemic and backlog of dental patients was noted. A dental recovery plan had been put in place in London, including a financial uplift to practices for a unit of dental activity and a patient premium incentive scheme in respect of a new patient appointment.

 

Oral health promotion service colleagues added information about their work, which was mainly related to children and young people, visiting settings for under-fives and schools, and providing training to staff. The fluoride varnish programme for 22 schools in Enfield was highlighted as an evidence-based preventative treatment and targeted within the borough to wards with the highest levels of obesity and percentage of disease.

 

Questions were invited from Members.

 

The Chair asked about children’s access to dental care, parents’ behaviour and need for oral health promotion. It was confirmed that there was evidence from the data as set out in the report and that promotion and intervention in respect of children’s oral health should be constant, integrating with wider issues such as healthy eating. An example of that was the collaboration with Tottenham Hotspur Foundation to reduce consumption of sugary drinks by raising awareness with children. Whittington NHS Foundation Trust provided oral health promotion across North Central London and included targeted promotion at early years settings and supervised tooth brushing.

 

Members raised the concern of advertisement of sugary drinks linked to TV football coverage. It was advised that the work with the charitable arm of Tottenham Hotspur Foundation would be subject to evaluation by the ICB.

 

In response to further queries regarding prioritising of interventions, it was confirmed that there were many common factors around oral health and obesity mainly due to sugar intake, and this informed the approach. All children of the right age groups in the prioritised schools were offered fluoride varnish treatment. The most effective intervention was to younger school  ...  view the full minutes text for item 4