Working hard for better health and housing for residents

I love my role as councillor and the opportunities it gives me to help local people and improve their quality of life - not just in my ward but right across Reading. I particularly enjoy my role as chair of scrutiny as it enables me to get a better understanding of issues Borough-wide and to hear from other councillors and other bodies not just the Council in relation to a number of key local issues. In scrutiny we have no budget or decision-making power as such but we can recommend action to the executive and external agencies - including health bodies on matters of public interest or concern. Last night in HHCC Scrutiny Panel (which I chair) I got cross-party support for recommendations I drafted which aim to improve children's health in the poorest parts of the Borough. This follows an in-depth Scrutiny Review into the issue last year. I will link to the recc's here when they are available online. To me these issues and what lies behind them - pockets of real poverty and deprivation in our town - are so important that they should be above party politics. Commitment from politicians is needed to make a difference to communities in the longterm. Sadly not everyone shares my view and lately some politicians have descended into playing politics rather then working to improve life for residents. I try to avoid playing the man, not the ball - others don't and I think it damages our politics in Reading. There are no easy solutions to improving children's health tackling child poverty and many of them lie at a national level and require fundamental changes like a fairer tax system to deliver change. However, I am campaigning to ensure that child poverty and poor health stay at the top of the local political agenda in Reading to focus the minds of politicians and key partners - i.e. the PCT. The recommendations will go to to the Labour Cabinet meeting in April (hopefully) for a response. We must not accept the status quo - children only get one chance at life and in 2010 everyone should be able to enjoy equal life chances wherever they live in Reading.
The review I requested of the impact of the NHS Walk In Centre revealed it to have been a huge success - with around 15,000 visits from patients since it opened. This is great but access to healthcare must be better in other parts of town - notably Whitley and Battle (Oxford Road area). We heard that the long promised Battle Health & Wellbeing has not progressed as a direct result of the recession. This is a concern giving health inequality in our area has worsened during that time.On overcrowding, something I've been campaigning on for months now, I was really pleased to secure cross-party support for a greater focus on helping support tenants who are over-crowded but also investigate ways to make more housing stock available. The 30% increase in the number of people on the Council's housing register (up to 6,000) is putting real pressure on stock. Lots of ideas were discussed and a full review and potentially scope for policy change will be put forward in October. It will need to include a combination of solutions - including making better use of existing stock and the private rented sector. 186 families are suffering living in overcrowded housing and I will not rest until that number has reduced significantly.
Housing repairs to council houses is something I have regularly received complaints about from residents over the years. This is doubtless the same for many other councillors - so I got the issue on the scrutiny agenda. Last night we discussed what could be done to reduce the number of 'avoidable calls'. Housing repairs relate to 47% of all contacts from residents to the Council - around 41 thousand calls! This is bad for tenants and a bad use of time and money for the Council. An action is being developed and HHCC Scrutiny Panel will be monitoring delivery closely.
Following the CQC inspection of Older People's Services a few months ago I had requested an update to scrutiny as to what is being done to improve areas where areas of concern had been identified by inspectors. There is no doubt that this more in-depth scrutiny of key services over the past 2 years since I've been chairing HHCC Scrutiny Panel has delivered improvements in key areas faster, as well introducing more accountability for members and local people.
This is just a brief snapshot of some of the issues we discussed last night - all of them really important. Being involved in scrutiny is one of the more hidden aspects of a councillors' work but I am hopeful we can make a real impact on housing, health and social care for residents in Reading. We had 20 items on the scrutiny panel agenda last night - not too bad given when I took over in May 2008 there were something like 32 on an average HHCC agenda.I still think we need to consider setting up a separate health scrutiny committee in Reading just to be able to do justice to all the health issues that come up. But overall it was a good, productive meeting and I'm pleased to say pointless party political bickering was kept to a minimum!

Scrutiny of Reading's new NHS "Walk In" Centre

As Chair of Reading Borough Council's main health overview & scrutiny committee - the Housing, Health and Community Care Scrutiny Panel since 2008 I have taken a keen interest in improving public access to good quality health services. Poor health in Reading is closely linked to real poverty and sadly many people lack health facilities on their doorstep and families find it difficult to get appointments to see GPs etc at times that suit them without going a long distance. I have been campaigning for a couple of years now on the need to get action taken to reduce health inequality in Reading - which was recently revealed to be the worst in Berkshire by independent inspectors. All the evidence shows that improving health outcomes is closely linked to improving access to free healthcare and good quality medical advice.
Residents in my ward in Redlands are lucky as most of them live quite close to the excellent Royal Berkshire Hospital. However, I have been concerned for some time about residents who live in parts of South and West Reading who are not so lucky.
The NHS Walk In Centre which was set up last year in Broad Street Mall in the Town Centre was set up in an attempt to address this gap in provision. The idea is simple - you don't need to be registered or to have an appointment to get treatment or advice. It sounds great as a concept but I have to admit I was a bit sceptical when the idea was first mooted as I was concerned it would be a 'polyclinic' and could post a threat to existing GP services. However, the feedback I have received from the PCT so far has been very positive. As Chair of the HHCC Panel I requested a report be presented to councillors on Thursday 11 March to review the impact of Reading's NHS Walk In Centre . We will be quizzing Berkshire West PCT, commissioners of the new service to find out whether or not the new service is doing what it was set up to do: improve access to NHS services to the highly-mobile population of residents living, working and shopping (!) in the Town Centre and improve public health.
Have you used this new service? If so, we'd love to hear from you about your experience. Please drop me an email daisy.benson@reading.gov.uk The meeting is kicking off at 6.30pm in the Kennet Room at the Civic Centre. The meeting is open the the public and if you would like to ask a question to the PCT about the service you can please get in touch.
Sadly two other health projects that could help improve access to services have still not come to fruition - in Whitley and Battle. The PCT has long identified other parts of Reading including Whitley need additional services to meet growing demand in the community. Residents living in and around Oxford Road are still waiting for the new Battle Health Centre to be developed - something Reading West Martin Salter MP and Battle councillor Tony Jones campaigned for all those years ago. It was supposed to be built in 2009. Back in 2004, Martin Salter said:"Local doctors' surgeries are pretty full around here and there is a need for more NHS dentists as well as a range of specialist services that can be delivered locally without people having to trek across town to the Royal Berks," he said. "It is great news that Reading PCT has identified the Battle site for a local centre." I agree with Martin - delivering services locally is what's needed - it reduces the need to travel and ensures everyone gets fair access to those services. The major fly on the ointment as far as this scheme is concerned is that it can only be built when the housing on the former Battle Hospital site is sold. The recession is basically to blame. This is a great shame. A lot of local residents must be feeling very disappointed about this after all the promises from Labour both locally and nationally. It must be disappointing for Martin Salter too that the Centre won't be built during his time in Parliament as Member for Reading West after his campaigning on this issue. I will continue to campaign for better access to healthcare for all Reading residents irrespective of where they live, and continue to press the PCT and the Council at every opportunity to speed things up on the ground.

UPDATE

The PCT has supplied us with a written report on the NHS Walk In centre which we will be discussing at the scrutiny panel on Thursday. Some interesting facts from the report:

• Between August 2009 and February 2010 13,778 patients had consultations at the new centre
• 59% of those patients live within Reading
• Patients attending are mainly indicating convenience is the reason they visited the centre
• The top four medical issues presenting are: upper respiratory infection, medication and skin infections and contraception
• 78% of patients attending are aged between 16 and 65
• 95% of patients are seen within 30 minutes
• 90% of patients are reporting satisfaction with the service