Anna Firth, Member of Parliament for Southend West has received a commitment from the Secretary of State for Health, that planned funding for Southend Hospital is secure.
In an urgent meeting with other Essex MPs, Anna Firth questioned the Health Secretary Steve Barclay on the recent CQC Report which declared that the Mid & South Essex NHS Foundation Trust was ‘Inadequate’.
Led by Anna Firth, Member of Parliament for Southend West, and Vicky Ford, Member of Parliament for Chelmsford, Essex MPs outlined their serious concerns about the downgrading of Southend, Broomfield and Basildon Hospitals from ‘requires improvement’ to ‘inadequate’ following a CQC Inspection in January and February of this year.
Firth used the opportunity to press the Health Secretary on the issue of the £118 million for capital improvements and hospital upgrades, approved by the Treasury in March 2021, but yet to arrive in South Essex. The Secretary of State confirmed that the total £118 million funding is secure, that it has been ear-marked for Basildon, Broomfield and Southend but that the department are still awaiting updated plans from the Trust to release the remaining £110 million.
Following a wide-ranging discussion in which he listened carefully to the concerns about current hospital services and GP access, the Secretary of State committed to continue working closely with Essex MPs, officials and the Trust to drive improvements and agreed to arrange a Ministerial visit as soon as time allows to monitor progress.
The meeting followed a visit by Anna Firth to Southend Hospital immediately following the publication of the CQC Report. She met and spoke with some of the senior leadership team and staff at many different levels. As part of this visit, she visited Chalkwell Ward, which was particularly criticised in the CQC Report, to see what improvements had been made.
These include a new meal regime on the wards to make sure all patients are well fed and hydrated, improvements to recruitment and retention in order to increase staff levels, a new “one book” system for patient records which gives staff greater clarity, and a new system so that all staff on wards can identify which patients lack capacity so that these patients can be better supported.
Commenting, Anna said:
‘I was shocked and disappointed by the CQC Report’s findings that our local health services have slipped still further. I immediately picked up the phone to senior leaders and arranged to visit Southend Hospital the following day as well as organising an urgent summit with the Health Secretary.
At this summit I was delighted to receive the Secretary of State’s assurance that the much needed £118 million of investment to improve South Essex Hospitals remains secure.
This money will go to make much needed improvements to all three of our local hospitals, but the lion-share of the money will come to Southend, enabling local residents to have the health service they deserve.
What needs to happen now is for the Trust to put together proper plans for how this money will be spent, so that the money can finally be released and improvements can be made as quickly as possible.
When I visited Southend Hospital following the publication of the report, the staff showed me first-hand various changes that they have made to help address the issues that the CQC found. I was very pleased to see that since the CQC inspection which took place in January and February, improvements have been made and the staff have been very focused to work to improve performance. I will continue to work hard to ensure that local residents have the best Hospital and local healthcare we all deserve.’
