Issue - meetings

The Committee will receive an update on NHS Dentistry from the Coventry and Warwickshire Integrated Care Board (ICB). This will respond to reported concerns over local services and the transfer of dentistry from NHS England to the ICB.

At 12.55 pm the Committee voted that the meeting should continue beyond three hours in duration.

The Committee received a briefing from Ali Cartwright, Chief Integration Officer and Tim Sacks, Director of Primary Care of the Coventry and Warwickshire Integrated Care Board (C&W ICB).

The update provided national context and background, including the transfer of dentistry, amongst other services to the ICB with effect from 1 April 2023. The report outlined the ICB’s roles in relation to dentistry. The six West Midlands ICBs had agreed to maintain the specialist dental (and pharmacy & optometry) commissioning team as a single team, hosted by the NHS England Office of the West Midlands to maintain the specialist knowledge and function.

In February 2024 the government published ‘Faster, Simpler and Fairer: our plan to recover and reform NHS dentistry’. This contained initiatives to improve oral health and access to dental care. It included plans to incentivise dental teams to provide NHS dental care and take on new patients. There were plans to increase the dental workforce and make it easier for practices to recruit new staff.

An overview was provided of dental services, which comprised primary care, community services and secondary care. A section was included on the national dental contract, implemented in 2006 and reviewed at a national level each year. The ICB had no ability to alter this overarching dental contract. It could commission additional services to address health inequalities. Dental providers were paid via a ‘unit of dental activity’ rate which fell into bands with the rates and example services detailed in the update. There was a recognised need to reform the dental contract.

Information was provided on dental services in Coventry and Warwickshire, with data on general dental services, orthodontic services and other services. A map showed the location of services across Coventry and Warwickshire.

The update included information on performance of providers. Services in C&W continued to perform well when benchmarked against other ICBs nationally. Key indicators of performance included the number of new patients registered with an NHS dentist and units of dental activity, compared to the data prior to the Covid pandemic. Coventry and Warwickshire was one of only two systems in England which had returned to pre-2019 levels for both new patient registrations and activity. Graphs were included to illustrate this.

Next, the update focussed on the dental services equity audit needs assessment. There were health inequalities across the ICB footprint. A report by the regional dental public health team had highlighted a number of these gaps, which would form the basis of a future local dental strategy. Data was provided in tables, highlighting:

• The prevalence of tooth decay in 5-year-olds in Warwickshire over the period 2008-2022, as compared to the West Midlands region and nationally. Whilst good overall, there were some areas with significantly higher tooth decay rates.
• The wards with comparatively poorest dental access across Warwickshire. Some areas of Stratford-upon-Avon were referenced.
• Rates of oral cancer and mortality in Warwickshire, compared to other  ...  view the full minutes text for item 9