How the STP came together
All STPs in England came together in 2015/16, as directed in the national NHS Five Year Forward View.
In Mid and South Essex, we were different from the rest. As part of the NHS Five Year Forward View, we were one of three designated “success regimes”. We received additional support from NHS England and NHS Improvement to diagnose deep-rooted and persistent pressures, and to accelerate our plan for transformation.
The Success Regime programme started in September 2015, leading to the publication of our overall plan for change on 1 March 2016, ahead of the national timescale for STP plans to be published by November 2016.
In 2017/18, we followed up with a consultation document setting out some proposed service changes. This led to decisions about hospital developments and further plans to invest in GP practices and other community services.
Please click here if you would like to see the previous STP plans and full details about the 2017/18 consultation.
Views from local people
In 2017/18, local people were asked for views on:
- What more could be done to help people to stay well and avoid serious illness
- How GP and other services in our communities could improve to meet the needs of local people
- How the three main hospitals in Southend, Chelmsford and Basildon could work together to improve care
- Proposals to transfer services from Orsett Hospital to new centres in Thurrock, Basildon and Brentwood.
In summary, the main messages from people were that:
- The overall approach was right to provide care at home and in community settings, where possible.
- We should maximise the benefits of joined up health and social care to treat people as people, with physical, mental and social care needs that need to be considered together.
- There should be more action and investment in prevention and proactive care to avoid illness.
- The plan needs more development and detail in terms of GP and community services.
- It is clear that we need more GPs, community nurses and hospital specialists – this needs a convincing workforce plan.
- Hospital service changes were dependent upon a strong transport infrastructure, which needs further work and improvement.
- The public needs more confidence in the future financial resources available to deliver our Partnership plan.