Planned operations

Planned orthopaedic surgery that needs a hospital stay (e.g. for bones, joints and muscles) would be at Southend Hospital for people in south Essex and Braintree Community Hospital for people in mid Essex

• Planned orthopaedic surgery that needs a hospital stay would be available at Southend Hospital for south Essex residents and at Braintree Community Hospital for mid Essex residents.
• Braintree Community Hospital is a purpose-built facility with operating theatres, which have previously been under-used. Currently, the hospital provides care for patients who need a short stay overnight or for those who require a period of care following discharge from the main hospital at Broomfield. Mid Essex CCG is currently discussing with local people how this type of care could be better for people if it was at home or closer to home

What this means:

• For most routine operations that could be done in a day, your GP would refer you to the hospital of your choice and you would be given a date to come into hospital.
• If your diagnosis showed that you needed a more complex operation requiring a hospital stay, you would be referred either to Southend Hospital or to Braintree Community Hospital.
• If you live closer to other hospitals outside mid and south Essex, such as Addenbrooke’s in Cambridge or Colchester General Hospital, you would continue to have the choice to go to these hospitals for your operation.
• Two to three days after your operation you would go home if you had made a good recovery, or return to your local hospital for further care and rehabilitation.

Emergency orthopaedic surgery that needs a hospital stay (e.g. for broken bones) would be at Basildon Hospital for people in south Essex and Broomfield Hospital in Chelmsford for people in mid Essex

Orthopaedics is concerned with muscles, ligaments, bones and joints

• All three main hospital sites currently offer a wider range of inpatient, outpatient and day case orthopaedic services e.g. for fractures, hip and knee operations, but there are wide variations in waiting times for admission and lengths of hospital stay.
• In order to separate emergency from planned surgery, we propose that most emergency operations requiring a hospital stay, e.g. for fractures and injuries, should be offered at Basildon Hospital for south Essex patients and at Broomfield Hospital in Chelmsford for mid Essex patients.

What this means:

• You would continue to go to your local hospital with a suspected fracture or other injury.
• Surgery for simple fractures and other routine surgery that could be performed within 24 hours would continue at all three local hospitals.
• Surgery for most people with a broken hip would also continue at all three local hospitals.
• If the diagnosis in A&E were that you needed a more complex operation requiring a hospital stay, you would then transfer to either Basildon Hospital or Broomfield Hospital in Chelmsford.
• If you had severe multiple injuries, such as injuries caused by a serious road traffic accident, you would continue to go directly to a major trauma centre either in Cambridge or London, which is what happens now.

Proposals for urological surgery at Broomfield Hospital in Chelmsford and Southend Hospital (for cancer)

Urological surgery is concerned with bladder and kidney problems.

• Currently, emergency urological services are provided at all three hospital sites, as is most planned surgery.
• Last year it was agreed that Southend Hospital should provide specialist surgery for urological cancer. People already travel to Southend for this service and this will continue.
• We propose to bring together the most complex urological surgery (non-cancer) at Broomfield Hospital in Chelmsford. Broomfield already has the most expertise in urological surgery and it makes sense to build on that.

What this means:

• If you had a urinary tract infection, for example, you would go to your local hospital via A&E for assessment and treatment.
• If you needed a more complex operation, such as the removal of a stone, you would transfer to the urology hub in Broomfield Hospital.
• Two to three days after your operation, ideally you would go home if you had made a good recovery, or you might return to your local hospital for further care.