To receive an update from Sabahat Hassan.

Sabahat Hassan passed on her thanks to the RBWM Communications team, key messages were coming out in the regular residents newsletter. A text message had recently been sent out about the health system being under pressure, with both the council and the NHS saying the same thing and relaying the same message. On appointments, conversations were happening to make sure that patients were matched up to specialists where they were available. For those in the Windsor area, there were additional same day appointments at St Edwards hospital. This helped to free up appointments for those that needed to see their assigned GP. In Maidenhead, St Marks was still being used for a wide variety of health services. There was also support being planned for those families arriving from the conflict in Ukraine. At the conclusion of the update, Sabahat Hassan asked if it would be possible to have a slightly extended agenda slot at the next meeting.

The Vice Chairman said that there was potential for a longer item, he would discuss this with the Chairman in advance of the next meeting.

Councillor Price said that she had spoken to a number of residents about the text messages and some had not received anything while others had. Some had expressed concern that it was a scam and ignored it, the NHS needed to be careful to distinguish official messages clearly so that they were not mistaken. Councillor Price also asked what role Healthwatch played, what their purpose was and were they looking to find faults with the NHS.

Sabahat Hassan said that the NHS worked closely with Healthwatch, they were an independent voice. On the text messages being seen as a scam, this was why the Comms team were trying to get the same message out via different communication methods.

Councillor Singh said that residents were concerned about the NHS and had recently been told to go to Wexham Park or Bracknell to access services. He asked if there was a date when the Urgent Care Centre at St Marks in Maidenhead would be reopened.

Sabahat Hassan explained that capacity had been increased at St Marks to deal with demand. Everything was under review and decisions would be made at the appropriate time.

Councillor Singh asked if there was a confirmed date that the centre would reopen.

He was told that the service was not out of the pandemic yet and therefore there was no specific date confirmed. Once an update was available, it would be communicated to residents through things like the newsletter. Theresa May, as MP for Maidenhead, had done a site visit last week and it was an important local issue.

Valerie Pike said it was good to see that screening services were being brought back to their usual capacity. The medical hub in Ascot had recently been approved and completed its journey through the planning process. On the urgent care centre, Valerie Pike said that she had spoken to someone who had to travel to Bracknell and was then directed to Frimley.