Agenda item

(1)       The Committee considered whether they wished to have a full discussion on dentistry at a future meeting.

(2)       Mr Ferrin stated that there needed to be a way for the papers submitted to the Committee to be more helpful in aiding Members to get to the issues.  If it was decided to have a session on dentistry research needed to be carried out into what the key issues were, Committee Members should have the opportunity to consider what issues they would like covered at the meeting and then NHS colleagues should be invited to address these.  He also reminded the Committee that a lot of Kent residents accessed their health services commissioned by Medway PCT and it was important that they were included in any discussions on relevant issues.

(3)       Mr Daley also referred to the need for the Committee to have access to expertise so that they could understand what the key issues were. He stated that when he had been a Member of a PCT board dentistry had been the poor relation, some dental budgets held by PCT’s were not fully used.  He also gave the Overview, Scrutiny and Localism Manager a list of questions that he had been given by the Chairman of the Local Dental Committee, who had indicated that he would be willing to attend a meeting of the Committee subject to work commitments. 

(4)       Mr Kendall referred to the LINks comments on dentistry containing a list of complaints that the Kent LINk had received. 

(5)       The Chairman stated that it would be helpful to know exactly what the role of a dentist should be and also the question of how the service was financed should be explored.  

(6)       Mr Wickenden referred to the forward work programme which was normally circulated with the agenda for each meeting.  Regarding the Task and Finish Group which had considered the reconfiguration of women’s and children’s services by Maidstone and Tunbridge Wells NHS Trust, this group had, over a two and a half week period interviewed a whole range of stakeholders and members had written the report.  This had been a very powerful process for Members.  He referred to the agenda setting process where health colleagues came together with the Chairman, Vice Chairman and Spokesman on the this Committee on a 6 weekly basis to focus the way that the Committee did business.  Mr Wickenden undertook to e-mail to the work programme to Members of the Committee.

(7)       Councillor Blackmore referred to the four District Council representatives co-opted onto the Committee and stated that only two attended on a regular basis and asked if there was anything that could be done to encourage District Councils to make full use of this opportunity.  Mr Wickenden stated that this was a matter for District Councils and it relied on them to ensue that they operated a system, including the use of named substitutes,  to ensure that there were always four District Council voting representative at each meeting.

(8)       RESOLVED that at the next agenda setting meeting consideration be given to programming a session on Dentistry.