Health chief pledges to help patients at Harrogate NHS dentistNHS dentistry provision was discussed at a meeting yesterday between Andrew Jones, the MP for Harrogate and Knaresborough, and Stephen Eames, the chief executive of the Humber and North Yorkshire Integrated Care Board.
The issue was highlighted recently by the announcement that Chatsworth House dental practice on King’s Road in Harrogate was closing to NHS patients from December 1.
The meeting was a follow-up from a briefing this month which the ICB – a collaboration of health and care organisations tasked with improving the health and wellbeing of people in the region – arranged for all Humber and North Yorkshire MPs.
Mr Jones said:
“We have a short-term issue – one that I raised at Prime Minister’s Questions – about what happens when a practice suddenly closes to NHS patients as has happened here. We also have a medium-term issue about increasing NHS dentistry capacity. Mr Eames and I discussed both these issues.”
Chatsworth House Dental Clinic
The ICB told Mr Jones it is planning to redistribute the funding given to Chatsworth House to other local practices so that they can take on more patients. Patients affected will be contacted directly by the ICB to explain where their new practice will be.
According to a government briefing published in April 2023, total funding for NHS dental services in England fell by 8% in real terms between 2010 and 2022.
Read more:
The crisis in NHS dental provision was highlighted by a YouGov poll in March. The survey found that more than a quarter of the UK population (27%) have not seen a dentist within the last two years, and one in five people (22%) are currently not even registered with a dentist.
Of those, 37% said it was because they couldn’t find an NHS dentist, and 23% said it was because they couldn’t afford to pay for treatment. One in 10 admitted to attempting their own dental work.
To help address the problem, the ICB is looking to increase NHS dental capacity locally through the rapid launch ‘Centres of Dental Development’, which are intended to support, develop and retain the dental workforce across the Humber and North Yorkshire.
Mr Jones said:
“It is good that the ICB are looking at the long-term sustainability of our dental service. This is a positive and constructive approach and I have asked that Harrogate, which is the largest town in North Yorkshire, will be host to one of these new centres.
“Such a facility would place front and centre significant dental provision for our area. It could educate a new generation of local dentists. To have such a centre in Harrogate would be a huge boon to our area.
“I look forward to receiving more details from the ICB and feel hopeful that my request for a Centre of Dental Development in Harrogate will be successful.”
Andrew Jones MP urges Prime Minister to ease ‘strain’ on access to Harrogate NHS dentistsHarrogate and Knaresborough Conservative MP Andrew Jones today urged the Prime Minister to tackle the “immediate strain” facing local people trying to access NHS dentists.
Concerns about a shortage of NHS dentists in Harrogate were heightened last week when Chatsworth House Dental Clinic, on King’s Road, said it will stop treating NHS patients at the end of the year.
Speaking at Prime Minister’s Questions today, Mr Jones said he and fellow North Yorkshire MPs met with the local integrated care board last week to discuss ways of improving dentistry provision. He added:
“But when surgeries suddenly close to NHS patients without notice as one in Harrogate did very recently, an immediate strain is put on local provision.
“Will the Prime Minister look at what can be done in these circumstances to ensure that no one is left without access to an NHS dentist?”
Mr Sunak pledged to “look into this issue” and said Mr Jones would be “reassured” to know the government was investing £3 billion a year into dentistry. He added there were no geographical restrictions on which dentists people could attend.
‘Sitting on the sidelines’
Tom Gordon with Daisy Cooper, the Liberal Democrats’ health spokesperson.
The man who hopes to succeed Mr Jones as Harrogate and Knaresborough MP at the next election accused his rival of “sitting on the sidelines” over dentistry.
Tom Gordon, the Liberal Democrat parliamentary candidate, said he was “pleased that after 13 years Andrew Jones has finally bowed to pressure and asked a question in Parliament about the dentist crisis affecting local residents”, adding:
“In the last six months, the Lib Dems have been increasing the pressure on him to do this. We have set up a dentists survey, arranged a meeting with the Lib Dem shadow health minister and made sure that questions were asked in Parliament about this issue.
“We’ve heard awful stories about how local people have been putting up with pain as they can’t afford to see a dentist. It shouldn’t have required a concerted campaign to make our MP act.”
“We’re determined to keep on fighting for the cash that will re-establish NHS dentistry in our area. We hope Andrew Jones will join us in this fight rather than sitting on the sidelines as he has done over this and many other issues for the last 13 years.”
Following his meeting with Humber and North Yorkshire Integrated Care Board last week, Mr Jones said:
“Dental services have been recovering but there is much more progress to be made.
“It is important that action is taken swiftly to expand the NHS dental provision in our area.”
Read more:
Harrogate hospital awards consultants £1.2m to embed culture of ‘continuous improvement’Harrogate District Hospital is spending nearly £1.2m on hiring management consultants to develop a culture of continuous improvement, the Stray Ferret can reveal.
Harrogate and District NHS Foundation Trust (HDFT) signed a contract with KPMG and Catalysis in March, which will run for 18 months to September 2024.
KPMG is one of the world’s largest multinational professional services companies, and Catalysis is a Wisconsin-based not-for-profit organisation dedicated to helping healthcare bodies become more efficient.
The continuous improvement programme, called HDFT Impact, will ultimately involve all 5,000-plus employees, who will be encouraged to share their knowledge with each other and come up with ways to improve the way the trust delivers its services.
In a statement sent to the Stray Ferret, a spokesperson said:
“It is our aim to embed improvement at the centre of our culture and operating model so we can provide the best quality, safest health and care services for our patients, children and the community; and make HDFT the best place to work for our colleagues.”
They added:
“There is no doubt that a steady stream of improvements, both big and small, can have transformational results.”
In recent years, KPMG and Catalysis have together worked with 16 NHS trusts, including Western Sussex, which became the first non-specialist trust to be rated outstanding in all areas by the Care Quality Commission.
In other cases, one trust saved £800,000 in theatre efficiencies, one increased surgeries per list by 25%, and another reduced falls among patients by 60%.
The spokesperson said:
“Continuous improvement is not a new concept at HDFT. It has been integral in helping us to develop our services and bring improvements for patients and colleagues for a long time – we have been using a lean quality improvement approach for over 10 years.
“We know this approach works and we’ve seen the improvements it can bring for patients and colleagues.”
Read more:
The HDFT Impact programme is being funded from the trust’s budget to procure and implement a new electronic patient record system.
The spokesperson said:
“Our EPR project is not just about providing an electronic system, but is an improvement programme enabled by technology to give our staff the opportunity to improve across the whole organisation.”
In May, it was reported that management consultants were being paid up to £3,000 a day for work within NHS England. At the time, Onay Kasab, national lead officer of trade union Unite, said the health service was being “plundered by private sector profiteers”. He added:
“The money would be much better spent providing a proper pay rise for NHS staff to end the recruitment and retention crisis that is crippling health services.”
HDFT’s deal with KPMG and Catalysis is costing the trust about £2,200 per day for the duration of the 18-month contract.
Asked if there had been any opposition or resistance from hospital staff to the hiring of external consultants, the spokesperson said:
“As an organisation, the majority of our colleagues are receptive to continuous improvement.
“Cultural change can be challenging, and a small number of people may be sceptical, but we believe that developing our continuous improvement programme is vital in our pursuit of excellence so that we can raise quality, reduce costs, explore better ways of delivering our services, and provide the best possible healthcare for those who need it.
“We hope that as the programme progresses and staff engage in it, all of our staff will recognise the huge benefits.”
Calls for urgent action to stop North Yorkshire children vapingCalls have been made for urgent action to tackle children vaping across North Yorkshire amid an “explosion” in young people using e-cigarettes.
A meeting of North Yorkshire Council’s children and young people’s scrutiny committee heard the authority’s annual health and wellbeing survey concluded more than one in three of children aged 13 to 15 years old had at least tried vaping, while 9% said they used them regularly.
Smoking of traditional cigarettes was continuing to decrease and the use of illegal drugs remained low, the meeting was told, but some children were starting to vape while still at primary school.
The study found some 5% of 10 and 11-year-olds pupils responded that they had at least tried vaping.
However, councillors were warned the vaping statistics in its Growing Up In North Yorkshire study were “woefully out” and the actual prevalence of vaping was likely to be much higher.
Earlier this year Dr Mike McKean, of the Royal College of Paediatricians and Child Health, said vaping was becoming “an epidemic” among teenagers.
He said if the growth of youngsters vaping continued at the same rate, almost all children would vape within five years.
Dr Tom Cavell-Taylor, who is a governor at Ripon Grammar School, told the scrutiny meeting:
“I don’t think young people appreciate the dangers of vaping.
“Vaping was seen as a better alternative to smoking, but there is a bit of a health time bomb going on with vaping and I don’t think that message is fully appreciated with young people.”
Cllr Kirsty Poskitt, who is also a youth worker, added it was “not unusual for year five and six pupils to be vaping”.
She said:
“What I’m really concerned with is how fast the public health is getting out. I have conversations daily with young people that vape that have no clue that it is in any way dangerous.
“The parents see it as a much better, they taste and smell nice, they’re trendy, you’re not going to have that first hacking experience of cigarettes.
“It’s a huge explosion and it’s one of my biggest concerns with young people.”
Read more:
The meeting heard councillors call for the government to step up campaigns to raise awareness of the dangers of vaping in the way that it has highlighted the risks of smoking tobacco and drinking alcohol or ban the sale of single-use vapes.
Councillors said by looking at the images in the windows of vaping shops alone, it was obvious children were being targeted.
The authority’s director of children and young people’s services, Stuart Carlton, said while he appreciated the immediate need to raise of the risks of vaping, it would be worse to launch a campaign that wasn’t accurate.
He said one of the issues with tackling vaping was that “the market moves really quickly”, so it was important to get messages precise.
Mr Carlton said:
“I would just ban them. I think they should only be available on prescription as part of a smoking reduction programme to adults only. That’s how you get them out of the system.
“Some of the things that are giving us the most concern aren’t the ones sold in shops, it’s the illegal market. These are black market vapes with cannabinoid additions which are causing horrendous incidents to children who experiment. You can do something about vaping, but then miss the thing that’s doing to most damage.”
The scrutiny committee was told public health officials were teaming up with a range of bodies, including the NHS and Trading Standards, to tackle the issue in a coordinated way.
Health Secretary called upon to keep Ripon dental practice openRipon City Council is seeking government intervention to stop the closure of Bupa’s Finkle Street dental practice.
At last night’s full council meeting, councillors voted unanimously to write to Health Secretary Steve Barclay amid concerns the planned closure of the practice will further reduce access to treatment for NHS patients in the city.
Bupa’s Finkle Street branch which has NHS and private patients on its books, plans to shut its doors on June 30, with the national company citing a lack of dentists to provide care.
Its Clock Tower practice in North Parade is unaffected, as are Harrogate’s Raglan Suite and Bupa Dental Care in East Parade – but none of these is accepting new adult NHS patients.
Cllr Peter Horton said:
“There are masses of people in Ripon in need of NHS dental care, but they now have to travel to places as far away as Guiseley and York to receive treatment from Bupa.
“This is completely unacceptable and we need to state in the strongest terms that we want the Finkle Street practice to stay open.”
Cllr Pauline McHardy said:
“No practices in Ripon are taking NHS patients and the situation is getting worse with more dentists going private.
“The government has overall responsibility for NHS dental services and they need to sort this out.”
Read more:
In addition to writing to the Secretary of State for Health, the council is also calling on Ripon Conservative MP Julian Smith and North Yorkshire Council’s Skipton and Ripon area constituency committee to support its bid to keep the Finkle Street branch open.
Independent city council leader Andrew Williams said:
“This is a very serious issue, not just here but across the country with an estimated 11 million people having no dentist.”
The Finkle Street branch is one of 85 across the country being closed, sold or merged over the coming months. As well as problems with recruiting, Bupa said rising costs influenced its decision.
Last month, at the time of announcing the closures Bupa Dental Care general manager Mark Allen said:
“As a leading dental provider in the UK, our priority must be to enable patients to receive the care they need.
“For the majority of affected practices, this decision will allow commissioners to procure local providers for the NHS contract, tailoring services and investment to the needs of the local community, thereby providing a better opportunity for patients to continue access to NHS dental services.”
Bupa said it will hand back its dental contract in Ripon to the NHS, allowing commissioners to find a new provider for NHS dental services.
Harrogate hospital food rated worst in country by patientsHospital food in Harrogate is the worst in the country, according to patients.
Harrogate and District NHS Foundation Trust received the lowest rating of all the hospital trusts assessed in the NHS survey.
Patients awarded the trust, which runs Harrogate District Hospital, 72% for food quality.
The next lowest was Mid-Cheshire Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust with 74%, closely followed by York and Scarborough Teaching Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust.
Private provider Bupa rated the highest with 100%.
NHS Digital published the figures as part of its 2022 Patient-Led Assessments of the Care Environment programme.
PLACE assessments are an annual appraisal of the non-clinical aspects of NHS and independent/private healthcare settings.
Harrogate fared better on cleanliness, ranking 53rd of the 222 organisations with a score of 99.49%.
But it was a lowly 192nd on privacy, dignity and wellbeing with a score of 81%.
Hospital issues apology
A Harrogate and District NHS Foundation Trust spokesperson said:
“We strive to provide the best possible levels of service for those people in our care and we are extremely disappointed that we were unable to meet the expectations of our patients when the assessment took place.
“We would like to apologise to anyone who has been dissatisfied by the service we provided.
“It is important that we learn lessons from these findings as food is an important part of a patient’s hospital experience. The quality of food provided to our patients has always been high, but there is the opportunity to improve on the levels of service.
“We take such assessments extremely seriously and have already started to make improvements to address the concerns that have been raised.”
“These improvements have already had a significant impact and we will continue to make further changes to ensure we are meeting our patients’ expectations.”
Read more:
UK’s largest-ever health research programme comes to RiponThe UK’s largest-ever health research programme has arrived in Ripon and is seeking volunteers aged over 18 from all backgrounds and communities to take part.
Working in partnership with the NHS, the charity Our Future Health has opened its large yellow mobile clinic on the Morrisons car park, off Harrogate Road, and will be there for a month.
Our Future Health aims to transform the prevention, detection and treatment of conditions such as dementia, cancer, diabetes, heart disease and stroke.
With up to five million volunteers across the UK, the goal is to create one of the most detailed pictures ever of people’s health.
At their clinic appointment, as well as having a blood sample and some physical measurements taken, volunteers will be offered information about their own health, including their blood pressure and cholesterol levels.
In the future, volunteers will also be given the option to receive feedback about their risk of some diseases and have the opportunity to take part in research studies.
Working in collaboration with the NHS, the programme is sending invitation letters to people who live near the new clinics. Anyone over the age of 18 can join by signing up online, completing an online health questionnaire, and booking a short clinic appointment.
Dr Raghib Ali, chief medical officer at Our Future Health, said:
“Our clinics are rapidly reaching more communities across the UK, giving more people than ever the opportunity to learn more about their own health and help people live healthier lives for longer.
“By placing our clinics in settings that people come across in their everyday routine, such as supermarkets, train stations and Boots stores, we’re making it easy and convenient for everyone to contribute to health research, particularly people who have never done something like this before.”
Read more:
Harrogate hospital: Patients will be safe during junior doctors’ four-day strikeThe chief executive of Harrogate and District NHS Foundation Trust has given assurances that patients will be safe during an upcoming junior doctors strike.
Doctors union the British Medical Association announced that its members will take part in industrial action from today until 7am on Saturday, April 15.
The strike will be longer than the 72-hour action by junior doctors that took place at Harrogate District Hospital last month and follows other strikes this year by nurses and ambulance workers.
Jonathan Coulter, chief executive of the hospital trust, told a meeting of the trust’s board members that the hospital has a “robust plan” in place to deal with any disruption should the junior doctors strike goes ahead as planned.
He said:
“Lots of work went into preparing for the last junior doctor’s strike. The biggest learning we found was the role of other professionals to cover roles.
“The strike is obviously concerning but I’m confident we’ll have safe services. There’s a cost of people covering the work and planning it and the cost to the patients who have work delayed. Services will be safe and let’s hope theres a solution relatively quickly.”
It’s estimated that more than 175,000 patient appointments and procedures had to be cancelled in England during the last junior doctors strike.
The BMA is asking for a pay-rise of 35%, which it says will reverse 15 years of real-term cuts. However, the government says this demand is unaffordable.
Read more:
The trust says outpatients appointments and planned activity may be affected at Harrogate hospital but patients will be contacted if appointments need to be rearranged.
It has asked people who require medical assistance and are considering visiting A&E to contact 111 first unless it’s life-threatening or a severe injury.
Why are the junior doctors striking?
Junior doctors are qualified doctors in clinical training and they make up nearly half of the medical workforce in England.
The British Medical Association says while workload and waiting lists are at record highs, junior doctors’ pay has effectively been cut by more than a quarter since 2008.
A BMA spokesperson said:
“If junior doctors are forced out of the NHS because of poor pay and conditions, the services we all rely on to look after our loved ones will suffer.”
A NHS spokesperson said:
“Our door remains open to constructive conversations, as we have had with other health unions, to find a realistic way forward.”
Let’s Get Better: NHS and partners launch new website for Harrogate district and beyond
This story is sponsored by Let’s Get Better.
Are you looking for help to improve you or your family’s physical and mental health? Do you want to take charge of your wellbeing and live a happier and healthier life? If yes, then read on.
If you live in the Harrogate area, Let’s Get Better is the ultimate destination for all your health and wellness needs. Our website, www.letsgetbetter.co.uk offers comprehensive resources, support and signposting to help you and your family Start Well, Age Well and Live Well.
The website has been put together on behalf of the Humber and North Yorkshire Health and Care Partnership – a collaboration of health, social care, community and charitable organisations in North Yorkshire and York, Hull and East Riding and North and North East Lincolnshire.
The launch of Let’s Get Better brings together lots of useful information and guidance to support you at every stage of your lifelong health journey – as well as help to take you to the “right care, first time” when you or a member of your family is unwell.
Whether you’re a young person looking for mental health support, a mum-to-be who’s looking for help to manage your pregnancy, or just want to get fitter, improve your diet, or manage stress, there’s something for everyone at Let’s Get Better.
We firmly believe in empowering people to take control of their health and wellbeing – and take steps to prevent ill health. With the right information at your fingertips, it will help you to play your part in looking after your health and the health of those around you – and help you choose the right care when you do have a health issue.
Dr Nigel Wells, clinical lead for the Humber and North Yorkshire Health and Care Partnership, said:
“Our Partnership’s ambition is for everyone in our area to: start well, live well and age well.
“This means shifting the focus of our work from picking people up when they fall to helping to prevent them from becoming unwell in the first place and supporting more people to manage their health and wellbeing at home so they can get on with living happy and fulfilling lives.
“We hope the Let’s Get Better website will become the ultimate online health and wellbeing companion for everyone living in our area – and people’s first port of call when they need extra information and support to make decisions about their health and wellbeing.”
Stephen Eames, CBE, the NHS Humber and North Yorkshire Integrated Care Board (ICB) Chief Executive added:
“We know that at the end of the day many people want to not only look after their health but also improve their wellbeing, both physically and mentally.
“There are lots of sources of health information available; the aim of Let’s Get Better, as more and more content is added, is to have an easy to navigate, dedicated online space where people can find out more about how to look after themselves – and where to go when they’re unwell.
“We want people to think beyond their family doctor – there are lots of other expert health professionals working in GP surgeries and many minor ailments can be resolved by going to see a local pharmacist. Or for more urgent care needs NHS 111 or an Urgent Treatment Centre can help, without having to go to a hospital’s Accident and Emergency department. Let’s Get Better explains all these services along with when you should use them and much more useful information.”
The Humber and North Yorkshire Health and Care Partnership is one of 42 Integrated Care Systems (ICSs) which cover England to meet health and care needs across an area, coordinate services and plan in a way that improves population health and reduces inequalities between different groups.
We work across a geographical area of more than 1,500 square miles and serve a population of 1.7 million people, all with different health and care needs.
Find out more:
In addition to the Let’s Get Better website, the Humber and North Yorkshire Health and Care Partnership has launched a new Facebook page, Do give us a like!
We’ll be regularly posting short videos, sharing hints, tips, advice and guidance and posting topical content.
NHS places to be lost as Ripon dental practice closure announcedA dental practice offering NHS care in Ripon is set to close in three months’ time.
Bupa’s practice on Finkle Street will shut its doors on June 30, with the national company citing a lack of dentists to provide care.
The Finkle Street branch has provided NHS and private dental care. The Bupa Clock Tower practice in North Parade is unaffected, as are Harrogate’s Raglan Suite and Bupa Dental Care in East Parade – but none of these is accepting new adult NHS patients.
Finkle Street is one of 85 across the country to be closed, sold or merged over the coming months. As well as problems with recruiting, Bupa said rising costs influenced its decision.
Bupa Dental Care general manager Mark Allen said:
“As a leading dental provider in the UK, our priority must be to enable patients to receive the care they need.
“For the majority of affected practices, this decision will allow commissioners to procure local providers for the NHS contract, tailoring services and investment to the needs of the local community, thereby providing a better opportunity for patients to continue access to NHS dental services.”
Bupa said it will hand back its dental contract in Ripon to the NHS, allowing commissioners to find a new provider for NHS dental services.
Read more:
However, the issue of NHS provision has already raised concerns in the Harrogate district.
It was raised in the House of Commons last month when Daisy Cooper, MP for for St Albans, said only half of children in North Yorkshire had seen an NHS dentist last year.
Last month, the chairman of North Yorkshire County Council’s health scrutiny committee, Cllr Andrew Lee, said he had raised the issue of NHS dental access in the county with the government.
The NHS website does not list any practices in the Harrogate district as accepting new adult patients for NHS treatment. Only two – Bupa’s Clock Tower in Ripon and Boroughbridge Dental Centre – are shown as taking new patients aged under 18 on the NHS.
Previously known as Oasis Dental Care, the Finkle Street practice had five surgeries and employed six dentists, a hygienist, seven dental nurses, a practice manager and two receptionists when the Care Quality Commission last inspected in 2016.
Bupa has not confirmed how many jobs will be lost as a result of the closure, but said it would redeploy staff “where possible”.
Mr Allen added:
“We fully understand the impact today’s decision has on our patients and our people within these practices. This decision has not been taken lightly and closure is a last resort.
“Despite our continued efforts, the dental industry is facing a number of significant and systemic challenges that are placing additional pressure on providing patient care, in particular recruiting dentists to deliver NHS dental care.
“This decision enables us to focus our efforts on high-quality, continued sustainable care for patients across our wider portfolio.”