Barnet health boss bemoans 'underinvestment' in local NHS services

The council’s executive director of health told councillors it was “not right” that Barnet residents have fewer local services than those in Camden, reports Joe Ives, Local Democracy Reporter

Dawn Wakeling, executive director of communities, adults and health at Barnet Council (credit Barnet Council/YouTube)

It is “not right” that Barnet residents are suffering from “historical underinvestment” in key NHS services compared to other boroughs, a council health boss has argued.

The comments were made by Dawn Wakeling, Barnet Council’s executive director of communities, adults and health, at a health and wellbeing board meeting yesterday (Thursday 24th).

Wakeling argued that the standard metrics for deciding NHS funding allocations – such as deprivation and borough location – meant that demands on Barnet’s health services were essentially being overlooked.

This, she said, was a particular issue given that the borough has the largest number of residents over 65 in London. It is also one of the reasons why Barnet has “such a hot, acute system and so much attendance at A&E,” Wakeling added.

The comments followed a “verbal update” of the NHS West and North London Integrated Care Board (WNL ICB), given to committee members by Darren Jones, the organisation’s director of complex care.

The ICB, the largest of its kind in England, is responsible for determining how an annual budget of around £12billion should be allocated for NHS primary care services for 4.5 million people spread across 13 London boroughs.

WNL ICB was officially launched in April. The move followed a decision made last year by the former North Central London and North West London ICBs to merge, in an attempt to streamline services and reduce costs.

Wakeling said that the newly merged ICB needed to acknowledge a “historical underinvestment” in community and mental health services in Barnet.

The council’s health director added: “It’s a multi-year challenge, I get that, but people who live in Barnet are not getting things that you can get if you live in Camden – and that’s not right.”

Sarah Campbell, manager of Healthwatch Barnet, agreed, saying that although “an awful lot of GP surgeries in Barnet are working very hard to serve the population” there remain “real challenges”.

Campbell said these issues are growing due to Barnet’s high numbers of elderly residents, as well as growing levels of deprivation in parts of the borough.

She said the ICB had “a real opportunity” to “turn things around”, especially in terms of prevention and reducing the number of people going to A&E.

Jones, speaking on behalf of WNL ICB, responded by saying there would be efforts going forward to better understand the needs of “smaller neighbourhood communities”.

The ICB and the council, Jones argued, have “a real opportunity” to work together and ensure that these communities “are not basically falling through the net” in terms of funding.

Alison Moore, cabinet member for adult social care and health, said that there was also a need to use data to look “below ward level” in order to better understand “emerging socio-economic and health inequalities, but also inequalities of population as well”.

Cllr Moore argued that it was important the NHS was “really understanding our local demography, those historical patterns of underfunding and the changing population that we are seeing across Barnet”.

Doing so would benefit “the whole system from acute down to community provision,” Cllr Moore added.

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