The South East London Joint Health Overview and Scrutiny Committee (SEL JHOSC) ¹ was scheduled to meet on 25 March 2025 to discuss sickle cell services, the reconfiguration of cancer treatment services for children, and dentistry across South East London. The meeting was also scheduled to include the election of a chair and vice-chair, and a review of the committee's work programme and terms of reference.

Sickle Cell Services

The committee was scheduled to review services provided to support patients living with sickle cell disorder. According to the report pack, South East London has the largest sickle cell disease (SCD) patient population in the UK, with around 3,000 people affected.

The report pack included details of an enhanced sickle cell community service, which aims to expand support for children and adults with SCD by increasing the number of Community Nurse Specialists (CNS) and adding 13 full time equivalent (WTE) staff to a broader multi-disciplinary team (MDT). The CNS teams can be contacted via email, and GPs can refer patients to them.

The report pack also mentioned a peer mentoring programme run by the Sickle Cell Society for children and young people aged 10 to 24.

An urgent and emergency care bypass unit was launched in Lewisham and Greenwich on 30 January 2024, and is scheduled to be fully operational 24/7 from 1 April 2025. There are also plans to expand urgent care access to King’s College Hospital and St Thomas’ ED in 2025/26, subject to resource confirmation.

The report pack also mentioned Universal Care Plans (UCPs), which are digital tools that allow people with SCD and their doctors to create a personalised care plan. According to the report pack, 89% of care plans have been uploaded in South East London.

The report pack also included details of a staff awareness campaign and training, with a new e-learning course available to South East London health and care professionals on the KHP Learning Hub.

Reconfiguration of Cancer Treatment Services for Children

The committee was scheduled to receive an update on plans to implement the reconfiguration of cancer treatment services for children in south London.

The report pack stated that Principal Treatment Centres (PTC) are regional units that lead the diagnosis and treatment of children with cancer. The current service is provided in partnership between The Royal Marsden NHS Foundation Trust in Sutton, and St George’s Hospital in Tooting.

The national service specification states that Principal Treatment Centres must be co-located with paediatric intensive care units, which the current Principal Treatment Centre does not meet. As a result, NHS England (London and South East regions) led a process, including a public consultation, to inform their decision on the future location of the service.

In March 2024, a decision was made that Evelina London Children’s Hospital, part of Guy’s and St Thomas’ NHS Foundation Trust, should be the future Principal Treatment Centre, with conventional radiotherapy to be provided at University College Hospital, part of University College London Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust in central London.

The report pack stated that the benefits of the move to Evelina London include:

• Giving the best quality care by meeting the national service specification requirements.
• Bringing together expert staff from the current service at The Royal Marsden and St George’s Hospital with Evelina London’s specialist teams.
• Being capable of offering cutting-edge treatments that need intensive care on site, ending hospital transfers.
• Providing more care on the specialist cancer ward.
• Providing more services on the same site, supporting new kinds of research, and helping the future centre keep and attract new staff.
• Making it easier for different specialist teams, including specialist paediatric teams treating the same child, to work closely together and learn from each other.

The report pack also included a timeline for the safe and sustainable transfer of services, with the first patient transfer scheduled for no earlier than October 2026.

Dentistry

The committee was scheduled to review dentistry and access to services. The report pack stated that on 1 April 2023, the Integrated Care Board (ICB) took delegated responsibility for the planning and contracting of dental services from NHS England.

According to the report pack, South East London has 193 primary care dental providers, 2 community dental providers (Bromley Healthcare and Kings College Hospital), and 2 secondary care dental providers (Kings College Hospital and GSTT).

In 2024/25, NHS England required ICBs to ring fence their dental budgets. SEL ICB invested this resource in:

• Additional units of dental activity (35k)
• Investment in advice and guidance to support primary care clinicians to manage their patients closer to home
• Additional investment to reduce waiting list for surgery for those children with complex needs
• Funding to continue the ‘tooth fairy’ initiative which supports children and young people

The report pack also included data on the number of contracted General Dental Services within South-East London ICB in 2024/25:

The report pack also noted that the NHS dental contract is facing challenges, with concerns about access, workforce shortages, and the current contract's ability to incentivize both dentists and patients.

SEL JHOSC Work Programme and Terms of Reference

The committee was scheduled to review its work programme and terms of reference. The report pack included a schedule of previous meetings, as well as potential topics for future scrutiny, including:

• London Ambulance Service (LAS)
• Mental Health
• Dentistry
• System Sustainability across SEL's ICS’
• Children’s Cancer Care – Substantial Variation Update
• Sickle Cell and services to support better care