Budget support for hospitals in Southend, Chelmsford and Basildon
The Mid and South Essex STP has been identified to receive national funds to support transformation in all three hospitals in Southend, Chelmsford and Basildon.
Once finalised, this could see potential investments from the additional funding in new operating theatres, improvements in IT to make it easier to operate across hospital sites and around 50 extra inpatient beds.
The Mid and South Essex Sustainability and Transformation Partnership (STP), includes all NHS organisations and the three local authorities in mid and south Essex.
Said Clare Panniker, Chief Executive of the hospitals;
“Although we are still working through all of the detail this could represent the most significant investment into mid and south Essex for almost a decade and we are delighted. This is an important step in the work we have been doing to develop proposals to secure and improve the care we provide for our population in the future.
“It will help us to improve the quality of the facilities in which we care for patients, helping to bring clinical areas up to modern standards.
“It is exciting news but does not mean the decision on services has been made. There is still a lot of work to do, including the full public consultation where our communities will again have the opportunity to tell us their views to help us build a model of hospital care which provides the very best outcomes for local people.”
A detailed business case and plan for a period of public consultation will be considered at the end of this month by the Joint Committee of the five clinical commissioning groups in mid and south Essex.
m/f
Said Dr Anita Donley OBE, independent chair of Mid and South Essex STP;
“This is fantastic news. We have held many discussion events with local people over the last two years and heard, loud and clear, people’s views about the importance of the need for more money invested in mid and south Essex health services, so we are absolutely thrilled with today’s announcement.”
The funding will be made available through business cases for different schemes once the final decisions on the model of care has been made following the conclusion of the public consulation.
ENDS
Editors’ notes:
1. For further information contact
2. Proposals for consultation are subject to approval of the Joint Committee of clinical commissioning groups, which meets on 29 November. This will be a decision to consult on these proposals, not any final decision to implement these proposals which would only happen after consultation with local communities.
3. The Mid and South Essex STP brings together all health and care organisations to work on a single plan to respond to the rising number of people who need health and care services. Over the next five years, the plan is to build up GP and community services and extend the range of professionals and services available at GP practices. In the three hospitals, proposals aim to reduce delays in A&E and emergency services, reduce delays and cancellations of planned operations and develop specialist services to continue to meet increasingly high standards in specialist care.
4. Proposals are likely to include:
Improvements in A&E at all three hospitals with the development of four new assessment and treatment centres alongside each A&E. All three A&Es will be led by a consultant, open 24 hours a day and will receive “blue light” ambulances. They will be able to treat the majority of cases.
A new “hyper acute stroke unit” close to the existing cardiothoracic centre in Basildon, which specialised in treatments for serious heart and lung problems. The new unit would provide the highest dependency and intensive care for stroke patients in the first 72 hours following a stroke. This would be in addition to the stroke care units at all three hospitals.
Some specialist inpatient care being brought together in one place, where there is existing expertise and to allow for extended hours, seven day a week consultant and specialist cover for these services. This is based on where there is clinical evidence that this would improve care and chances of a making a good recovery. Examples include gynaecological surgery at Southend Hospital, urological surgery at Broomfield Hospital in Chelmsford and surgery for arteries and veins at Basildon Hospital.
Some planned operations being done separately from emergency cases. Some complex operations that need a few days hospital stay could be done in Southend Hospital for people in south Essex and Braintree Community Hospital for people in mid Essex.
It is estimated that the number of patients that would need to transfer from a local A&E to a specialist team in another hospital could be around 14 patients a day. The number of patients that would need to travel further than their local hospital for a planned operation could be around 15 patients a day.
5. The Mid and South Essex STP is made up of the following health and care organisations:
NHS Clinical Commissioning Groups (CCGs), which plan and buy your healthcare with
an annual allocation of funds from the Government
• Basildon and Brentwood CCG
• Castle Point and Rochford CCG
• Mid Essex CCG
• Southend CCG
• Thurrock CCG
The CCGs work closely with GP practices, pharmacies, social care and voluntary services in your area.
Local authorities, which provide social care and commission services from care agencies, care homes and voluntary services
• Essex County Council
• Southend-on sea Borough Council
• Thurrock Council
Organisations, which provide services commissioned by CCGs
• Basildon and Thurrock University Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust, which provides services from Basildon and Orsett Hospitals
• Mid Essex Hospital Services NHS Trust, which provides services from Broomfield Hospital in Chelmsford and Braintree Community Hospital
• Southend University Hospital NHS Foundation Trust, which provides services from Southend Hospital
• East of England Ambulance Service NHS Trust
Organisations, which provide services commissioned by CCGs and local authorities
• Essex Partnership University NHS Foundation Trust, which provides community services, adult mental health services and inpatient children’s mental health services
• North East London NHS Foundation Trust (NELFT), which provides community services and children’s community mental health services
• Provide, which provides community and social care services
Planners and regulators
• Your local independent watchdog bodies – Healthwatch Essex, Healthwatch Southend and Healthwatch Thurrock
• NHS England specialised commissioning, which buys the most specialised services for the whole of the midlands and east region
• Health Education England, which is responsible for the development of the NHS workforce
• NHS England and NHS Improvement, the national regulators of the NHS