‘We’ve not gone far enough’, outgoing health scrutiny chair claims

Efforts to improve adult health and social care provision in Devon have “not gone far enough”, according to an outgoing scrutiny chair.

Cllr Sara Randall Johnson (Conservative, Broadclyst) is frustrated about some ambitions that haven’t been achieved during her eight-year tenure overseeing the county council’s health and adult scrutiny committee.
Ms Randall Johnson, who isn’t standing for re-election in May after 30 years as a councillor, including as leader of East Devon District Council, said she would have liked to have “done more”.
“We have not gone far enough or been hard enough on behalf of residents,” she said.
“We still have waiting lists for certain parts of the council, and more importantly from a health perspective, as a result of lockdown, tragically we have unacceptable waiting lists in the NHS and we need to get rid of those as soon as possible.
“It is not acceptable. We’re supposed to be a first-world country, and I don’t think we are and it’s really sad.
“It’s got nothing to do with party politics, but everything to do with us not performing well enough.”
It was acknowledged that while the committee is hosted by Devon County Council, its work partly relies on the NHS.
For instance, while the county council creates a dementia strategy, it will rely on the NHS to help the scheme. Diagnosing dementia is also the responsibility of the health service.
Cllr Randall Johnson added that the council “pumps large sums of money into the adult social care system, and so it “ought to be able to function better”.
“I understand the current secretary of state is looking at the health side, but he is not looking at adult social care, and this is something that seriously needs to be considered,” she said.
Cllr Richard Scott (Conservative, Exmouth) thanked her for her service as a councillor and to the committee.