THE man behind a revolution in healthcare in south Essex is confident plans to save £214million in the next three years will be a success.

Andrew Pike, Essex area director for NHS England, will oversee plans to merge services at Southend, Basildon and Mid Essex Hospital trusts.

He hopes the merger plan, which also includes five clinical commissioning groups, will help save £214million.

The Echo revealed yesterday, a £216million deficit between the trusts is expected by 2019.

Mr Pike has ruled out any closures of A&E wards, which are struggling to cope with growing patient numbers.

He said: “We are looking at whether there should be any greater specialist access at the three hospitals. Someone with a complex heart problem would already go to the cardiothoracic centre at Basildon, and someone with sever burns would go to Broomfield.

“Because of pressures on staffing we are looking to see if we need to go any further but there will be no A&E closures.Around 100,000 people visit each A&E each year and you can’t just shift that number of people somewhere else.”

When asked if the huge savings would result in job losses, he added: “I would hope not. I can’t give a guarantee that there won’t be any job losses but I don’t think there will be huge job losses because we are dealing with a workforce deficit at the moment, particularly with doctors and nurses. We would like more doctors and nurses but less use of agency and temporary workers because it is so expensive.”

Mr Pike added that under the Mid and South Essex Success Regime, there will be greater emphasis on sharing staff between the three hospitals.

Details of how this will work will be known later this year.

Mr Pike said: “In the next two to three months hospitals will be coming forward to propose the organisation of service management on a group basis, but still with three hospitals.

“They will look at ways to make decisions together on a collaborative basis. We don’t want the three hospitals to be at odds with each other so they must find a way to collaborate.

“At lower levels we would like to explore the workforce to see how they can be optimally used, with staffing working on one or more sites.”

CCGs to work together

THE region's five Clinical Commissioning Groups will remain, according to Andrew Pike.

However, under the major shake-up, the CCGs will make decisions at a joint committee rather than individually.

GPs will also be encouraged to work more closely together, share services and explore new technology to treat more people in the community.

The savings made from less people attending hospital would partly fund the cost of extra primary care.

Mr Pike said: “Its a big ask and it’s not going to be easy but with everyone working collectively it is doable.

“If GPs are asked to do more work, if they take on special clinics there will be extra funding. We aren’t asking GPs to taken on any more efficiency as they already have annual targets. If they are creating new services in the community then funding will be identified.”

GPs welcome the plans

WITH the onus on more care in the community to alleviate the pressure on hospitals, GPs will be in the firing line of a revolution in healthcare.

GP Dr Krishna Chaturvedi, from Westcliff's Southbourne Grove Surgery, welcomes the success regime as an opportunity to iron out problems which have been plaguing health care providers.

He said: “It is a tight schedule for change and it will need a lot of investment in the community. It isn’t just about resources but human resources as well and we have a big challenge with that but the whole idea is to share those resources to save money.

“At the moment there are not enough community staff and I don’t know how that will be addressed in such a short time.

“It will be interesting to see what happens. Something has to be done. It is something that has to be tried because we don’t want to keep inundating our hospitals if patients can be cared for in the community.

“As long as there is collaboration with other services like the councils and social services it will work. There has to be a joined up approach.”

Dr Haroon Siddique, from the Southend Medical Centre, added “I think we have already seen some changes. There is a lot more emphasis to get things done in the community and the CCG has long term plans to support that.

“It needs to be done because the pressure of the pressure on all our hospitals.”

Health watchdog will monitor plans

AN independent health watchdog is currently taking part in discussions with the Mid and South Essex Success Regime.

They will be among GPs, other health providers and service users who will meet between now and September to thrash out details of the plan to overhaul healthcare in the area before it goes out to public consultation in September.

Gavin Rogers, communications manager with Healthwatch Essex said the organisation would be keeping a close eye on the project in the coming months.

He said: “At the moment there is not a lot of detail and it seems focussed on the financial side of things, which is understandable. We would hope the regime focuses on what people want but at the moment there doesn’t seem to be a lot to talk about.

“There will be some sort of rationalisation with things perhaps going on in two or three hospitals now only going on in one. They need to talk to patients and understand what their needs are first. We will be keeping an eye on it to ensure patient welfare doesn’t suffer.”

Mr Rogers added: “It will all depend on the details and the devil is in the detail. The use of modern technology could be a way forward. it could work well and be a good opportunity. Monitoring patients at home makes an awful lot of sense but you wonder how much they would have to invest in the technology.

“The success regime is a good opportunity and doing nothing is not an option. We hope they come up with some good ideas by September.”