Agenda item

To consider and discuss a report from the Head of Democratic Services which presents information surrounding the workforce development of Primary Medical Services in Leeds.

Further to the minutes of the meeting held 7^th September 2021, the Head of Democratic Services submitted a report that provided further information surrounding the workforce development of Primary Medical Services in Leeds.

Appended to the submitted report included a briefing paper from NHS Leeds Clinical Commissioning Group on Primary Medical Services in Leeds Workforce Development.

The following were in attendance for this item:

·  Councillor F Venner, Executive Member for Adult and Children’s Social Care and Health Partnerships

·  Councillor S Arif, Executive Member for Public Health and Active Lifestyles

·  Cath Roff, Director of Adults and Health

·  Victoria Eaton, Director of Public Health

·  Kirsty Turner, Associate Director Primary Care NHS Leeds CCG

·  Lisa Kundi, Senior Manager Primary Care Integration, NHS Leeds CCG

·  Gaynor Connor, Leeds GP Confederation

Members were advised of the following points:

·  It is down to the 92 individual practices to recruit and train staff, there is no fixed model of delivery and partners are being worked with to look at plans and trajectories for the future.

·  An overview was provided on the Leeds position in terms of General Practice Workforce Statistics data as of September 2021 and satisfaction with appointment times.

·  Additional Roles Reimbursement Scheme, acknowledging that Leeds currently has 225 WTE roles employed under the scheme, with an ambition to employ 530 additional roles. There are challenges in terms of accommodating staff and funding implications with the development of new roles.

·  Care navigation roles have been introduced to support patients to see the right professional based on their needs first time.

·  Community pharmacy consultation services are live across 44 practices in Leeds and there are just under 2,000 referrals covering a range of conditions.

Member’s discussions included:

·  The Board acknowledged that the level of variation across the satisfaction responses are not acceptable and sought clarity on what individual practices and Leeds CCG are doing to ensure services are better suited to the needs of the public. It was confirmed that work has been on-going to work with the practice with the lowest level of satisfaction, and key indicators and information is relayed to practices. Additionally, members were informed that statistics for the level of satisfaction responses have remained consistently above the national average and only once dipped below the national average in 2020 during the Covid pandemic.

·  A member commented on the range of roles across Primary Care Networks (PCN) and queried the difference in the numbers of roles across each PCN. It was acknowledged that the amount of funding available varied depending on the size of the population, and it was confirmed that there is already a city-wide social prescribing service, hence why some PCNs may not feel the need to cover this role and instead, put investment into additional roles they feel is appropriate for their service.

·  Members were informed that whilst there are a number of GP and nurses vacancies, there is no indication of a work crisis situation and there is sufficient capacity to meet the needs of the population. 

·  Clarity on whether there are plans to recruit internationally. It was confirmed that there are no international recruitment schemes or campaigns. It was noted that the current focus is to work with education providers to encourage young people into the health sector, to future proof the service.

The Executive Member for Adult and Children’s Social Care and Health Partnerships highlighted a communications issue, in terms of messaging being disjointed between the public and the work of primary care. The Executive Member for Public Health and Active Lifestyles emphasised the need to ensure members of the public are kept well informed and suggested that elected members are passed information to publish on their social media pages and to enable them to provide information to their constituents.

The Chair thanked everyone for their attendance.

RECOMMENDED – To note the contents of the report and comments made during discussion of this item.