Agenda and minutes

Apologies were received from Councillors Akpoteni, Fenton, Fisher and Khatun.

Members to declare any interests in matters to be discussed at the meeting.

There were no declarations of interest made.

To receive presentations on the current position on access to Primary Care services in Sandwell.

The Board received a presentation on the current position regarding access to primary care services since the easing of lockdown and restrictions.

The impact of the pandemic had required rapid change to the way in which primary care could operate to ensure patient and staff safety, however, primary care had remained open throughout. 

Primary care services continued to be in very high demand, and activity across all services had increased significantly.  There were also additional pressures relating to staff sickness and isolation and the delivery of the vaccination programme.

A blended approach was being taken to GP appointments, with a triage service continuing, as well as face to face appointments.  57% of GP appointments were currently face to face, with 49% of patients in Sandwell being seen on the same day.  This was greater than the England average, which was 41%.  On average, GPs in Sandwell were seeing 37 patients a day, which was an increase from 28 pre-lockdown.  It was noted however that for 3-5% of appointments, the patient did not attend, and this equated to thousands of appointments per week. 

In addition, the delivery of the vaccination programme equated to an additional 300,000 face to face appointments across the borough.

Patients were presenting with more complex issues now, as a result of people’s fear of contacting primary care during the pandemic and in some cases, the exacerbation of symptoms/changes in conditions. 

A further added pressure for primary care services was the falling number of GPs coming through the system. In 2016 there was an average of 0.52 GPs per 1,000 people, and this had now reduced to 0.46.  Whilst the government had committed additional funding for primary care, it was not possible to replace lost staff in the short -term. It was therefore necessary to use staff more flexibly and innovatively.

One of the approaches being taken was to ensure that the patient was attended to by the most appropriate individual for their complaint, and this did not necessarily always need to be a GP.  Social Prescribers were being recruited to address non-medical needs and social related problems.  It was also proposed to recruit a mental health practitioner for each of the eight Primary Care Networks covering Sandwell, 26 in total across the Clinical Commissioning Group (CCG).

Funding of £100k had been made available to support system improvements, which it was hoped wold be utilised to increase capacity in telephone systems and other technological improvements.

It was important to get the message across to patients that they did not always need to see their GP and encourage them to think differently. Work was already taking place with Healthwatch Sandwell and the voluntary and community sector on the best ways of getting this message across and it was hoped that community leaders would support this work.

In response to members questions and comments, the following was noted:-

·      One in four patients seeing their GP had mental health issues. The aim was for all surgeries to have a mental health  ...  view the full minutes text for item 33/21