NHS trust improvements not good enough, MP says

An NHS "intensive recovery programme" announced earlier this year has not been good enough at delivering change, an MP has said.

In March, the then Health Secretary Wes Streeting announced five NHS trusts - including Mid and South Essex (MSE) - would be included in a plan to tackle the "worst services in the country".

MSE's programme began in September and Adam Sewell-Jones, Group Chief Executive for the Trust said patients are already seeing improvements.

But Chelmsford MP Marie Goldman said the Trust had taken too long to start the work adding: "Things were supposed to happen quickly... this is literally a case of life and death in some circumstances."

The Liberal Democrat MP told the BBC that government guidelines suggest patients should have started to see better outcomes and "clear results" from six months into the programme. However the start of the programme had been delayed.

"The government will tell you that they waited for the new chief executive to be in place at Mid and South Essex," said Goldman.

"He didn't start until the end of June, so I suppose we could argue they've kind of got until the end of the year to see some improvements, but it's just not good enough.

"We have patients who are really suffering."

She praised the work of staff at Broomfield Hospital but said she did not feel "we're seeing what we need to see" from the intensive recovery programme.

Teisha Leigh, regional organiser at the union Unison told the BBC that trade unions regularly meet with Trust management to discuss the programme.

She said: "There's a lot of talk about it, and I'm sure there's a lot of good intentions.

"But if we're talking about changes on the ground, we're not seeing those.

"There is still chronic understaffing."

Sewell-Jones said patients were already seeing benefits.

He said: "They're getting home sooner thanks to our improved discharge process and are receiving the right care in the right place.

"It's also encouraging to see the number of people on our waiting lists is falling."

A Department of Health and Social Care spokesperson said: "We are seeing early signs of progress and are helping the trust develop long-term solutions to the underlying causes of its performance issues."

Do you have a story suggestion for Essex? Contact us below.

Follow Essex news on BBC Sounds, Facebook, Instagram and X.