John Baron MP welcomes significant investment in NHS Transformation projects in Mid and South Essex

MP says £5-10 million investment in NHS will improve local services

John Baron MP welcomes news that Basildon and Thurrock University Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust will benefit from a share of £325 million in new capital investment for local NHS projects across the country. Mid and South Essex will receive £5-10 million to help the NHS modernise and transform care for patients locally.

This Government is backing the NHS’ own plan for the future, the Five Year Forward View, and funding it with an additional £8 billion a year in real terms by the end of the Parliament. Delivering that vision relies on better integrated care locally, which is being taken forward through Sustainability and Transformation Partnerships.

John said,

“I am delighted to welcome new investment which will mean patients get an even better service from the NHS in Mid and South Essex.”

“We have made significant progress in improving patient care since 2010, and this funding will help us to promise the highest-quality, most compassionate patient care available anywhere in the world.”

“Patients will see this investment deliver faster diagnosis for conditions like cancer, easier access to mental care, expansion of A&Es, shorter waits for operations, and more services in GPs surgeries.”

“We said in the Budget that we would invest in local areas who have developed the best plans – and today we are making good on that promise with an initial £325 million of capital funding. This will improve patient care and outcomes in communities up and down the country.”

“This investment wouldn’t be possible under Labour – because at the election they said they wanted to pause these plans, despite the fact they are supported by local clinicians in the interest of patients.”

Notes to Editors:

This round of funding will support Sustainability and Transformation Partnerships (STPs) across the country, with plans including:

· In Greater Manchester, hospitals will deliver significant improvements in urgent and emergency care by concentrating services in four hub sites across the city, expected to save around 300 lives each year in general surgery alone.

· In Bedfordshire local doctors and nurses are developing a primary care hub on the site of Bedford Hospital which is expected to improve access to same day appointments for around 50,000 patients and reduce the number of patients attending the hospital’s A&E department.

· In Derbyshire the creation of an ‘Urgent Care Village’ at the Royal Derby with GP services, a frailty clinic and mental health services to ensure patients receive the right care in the right place, first time, and avoid going to A&E unnecessarily.

· Health experts have said that STP’s will improve patient care. The independent King’s Fund said these plans are the best way forward for the NHS – and not doing it means colluding ‘in the continuation of unsafe services’ (The Daily Telegraph, 21 February 2017, link).

· The most senior doctor in the NHS says these local plans ‘will deliver practical improvements.’ Sir Bruce Keogh said: ‘this is not a moment to sit on our hands. There are straight-forward, and frankly overdue things we can do to improve care. We are talking about steady incremental improvement, not a big bang… I am optimistic they will deliver practical improvements that will really make a difference to people’ (NHS England, 14 November 2016, link).

· England’s Chief Nurse says the plans will mean safer care. Professor Jane Cummings said: ‘When it comes to commissioning and providing services, Sustainability and Transformation Plans (STPs) are the best way for us to demonstrate real leadership and focus on doing the right things that deliver safety and the Triple Aim of good care, improved health, and lower cost’ (NHS England, 14 March 2017, link).

STP Capital Funding Allocation Figures

STP Name
Lead Organisation

Approx funding requirement [Allocated capital is over a three-year period]
Mid and South Essex
Basildon and Thurrock University Hospitals NHS FT
£5m-10m
Mid and South Essex
Basildon and Thurrock University Hospitals NHS FT

<£5m