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

Reconfiguration of cancer treatment services for children in south London

The committee was scheduled to receive an update on plans to reconfigure cancer treatment services for children in south London.

According to the report pack, the current service is provided in partnership between The Royal Marsden NHS Foundation Trust at its Sutton site, and St George’s Hospital in Tooting. NHS England decided in March 2024 that Evelina London Children’s Hospital, part of Guy’s and St Thomas’ NHS Foundation Trust, should be the future Principal Treatment Centre (PTC), with conventional radiotherapy to be provided at University College Hospital.

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

Give best quality care by meeting the national service specification requirements. Bring together expert staff from the current service at The Royal Marsden and St George’s Hospital with Evelina London’s specialist teams who already care for children with complex and rare medical conditions. Be capable of offering cutting-edge treatments that need intensive care on site, ending hospital transfers, which add avoidable risk.

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

Sickle cell and services to support better care

The committee was scheduled to review the services provided to support patients living with sickle cell disorder.

The report pack included information on the South East London Sickle Cell improvement programme, which includes:

• Networked approach to community services
• Emergency and urgent care improvements
• Peer support and patient experience initiatives
• Workforce and awareness campaigns

The report pack stated that South East London has the largest Sickle Cell Disease (SCD) patient population in the UK, with approximately 3,000 people affected. People with sickle cell disease have experienced longstanding health inequalities, and the All-Party Parliamentary Group on Sickle Cell and Thalassaemia and the NHS Race Observatory found that a lack of staff training led to misdiagnoses and inadequate or delayed pain relief, and that people with SCD report negative attitudes often underpinned by racism.

The report pack also highlighted an enhanced sickle cell community service, which expands support for children and adults with SCD by increasing Community Nurse Specialists (CNS) and adding 13 WTE staff to a broader multidisciplinary team (MDT) providing equitable access across South East London.

Dentistry

The committee was scheduled to review dentistry and access to services across South East London.

The report pack included information on primary care dental services, secondary, community and specialist dental services, and the status of oral health across the life course.

According to the report pack, South East London has 193 primary care dental providers, 2 community dental providers, and 2 secondary care dental providers. In 2024/25, NHS England required ICBs to ring fence their dental budgets, and SEL ICB invested this resource in additional units of dental activity, investment in advice and guidance to support primary care clinicians to manage their patients closer to home, additional investment to reduce waiting lists for surgery for children with complex needs, and funding to continue the ‘tooth fairy’ initiative which supports children and young people.

The report pack also noted that dental decay is largely preventable, with modifiable risk factors for poor oral health common to wider systemic health and wellbeing. Risk factors include diet, stress, alcohol, tobacco, diabetes, as well as the wider determinants of health.

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 list of potential future scrutiny topics, including the London Ambulance Service, mental health, dentistry, system sustainability across SEL's ICS, children’s cancer care, and sickle cell services.

The committee's terms of reference state that it is constituted in accordance with the Local Authority Public Health, Health & Wellbeing Boards and Health Scrutiny Regulations 2013, and that it is responsible for reviewing and scrutinising any matter relating to the planning, provision and operation of health services covering the Council areas within the South East London Integrated Care System.