Agenda item

The draft scrutiny review report on Access to Medical Appointments is enclosed.

The Commission discussed the draft report on Access to Medical appointments.

A member commented that a couple of constituents had raised concerns that about prescriptions being made that did not reflect contraindications in their GP practices notes.

There was a discussion on the particular vulnerability of young people to isolation and loneliness and that the last recommendation ought to be strengthened to reflect the focus on this cohort.

RESOLVED

The following recommendation was added:

Recommendation eight

Note the importance of maximising GP continuity and ensuing adequate appointment time in order to carefully prescribe, identify contraindications and avoid mistakes.

The following recommendations were amended as below:

Recommendation nine

Seek to recruit and retain more GPs to Southwark and to the new Primary  roles by:

•  Suggest this is included as an objective within SEL workforce programme if not already.

•  Undertake work with local GPs and local Primary Care to understand more on  how to improve retention, with particular regard to housing and addressing the national problem with burnout and low morale,  and if there are opportunities within Partnership Southwark and SEL to retain more local GPs for longer

•  Redirect more resources to Primary Care, where possible

As part of the above the Commission recommends that the Cabinet Member for Council Homes and Homelessness works with the Cabinet Member for Health and Wellbeing to link the council ambition to build 500 homes for key workers to the housing needs of GPs and other local Primary Care practitioners, and also calls for the council’s commitment on the number of new key worker homes to be increased in future years.

Recommendation eleven

The Commission recommend that Partnership Southwark initiate a project with local surgeries working with the local voluntary and community sector  to develop a more proactive and holistic  model of good health and wellbeing, with a particular focus on increasing social connection. 

It is recommended that a pilot scheme is developed in a neighbourhood with higher levels of deprivation, and that this focuses on groups at particular risk of ill health and poor well-being, such as older people, people with mental health needs, and young people, noting that is a group suffering from some of the highest levels of unhappiness and isolation. This is with a view to promoting good health and overcoming loneliness and isolation.

This could build on the model and research that came out of the Peckham Experiment on activities that promote good health, building upon existing NHS preventative work, such as health checks and social prescribers,  as well as working more proactively with the local community.

  In doing so it is suggested that Partnership Southwark identify one or two GP practices in clusters/ neighbourhood multidisciplinary teams (such as Walworth Triangle, Peckham)  and locally based community projects ( such a Blackfriars Settlement, Copleston Centre or Walworth Living Room) that might be interested, as well as linking with initiatives that work across the borough with communities of interest that work with older people (such as Golden Oldies , Southwark Pensioners Centre), mental health (such as Southwark wellbeing Hub,  Lambeth and Southwark Mind), young people ( The Nest, Southwark Local Offer and One Hub Southwark) and organisations that conduct intergenerational work such as Link Age Southwark.