WITH tens of thousands of new homes being earmarked for south Essex in the next 20 years, the need to upgrade vital services, such as schools and health, are more urgent than ever.

As our region's ambulance service admits it could start using taxis to transport patients due to delays in ambulances handing over patients at hospitals, it is clear the NHS is in a precarious position.

And a series of recent damning inspection reports for south Essex GP surgeries casts further doubt on whether our health service can cope today, let alone in two decades' time.

At present, there are five surgeries in south Essex rated inadequate by the Care Quality Commission, with a sixth site facing the same fate if it fails to improve upon its current "inadequate" rating.

For surgeries in special measures, the message from regulators is clear - they must improve within six months or face the possibility of being shut down.

The most recent practice to receive such a damning verdict was the Malling Health practice at Dipple Medical Centre, in Wickford Avenue, Pitsea.

Inspectors found the surgery, which has 4,470 patients on its books, had failed to store medicines at safe temperatures and was not properly investigating concerns raised by staff.

Keith Bobbin, Labour county councillor for Pitsea, believes an inability to replace retiring doctors in Essex is having an impact on services.

He said: “We have got a few surgeries in Essex under special measures at the moment.

“The Care Quality Commission seems to be hitting the NHS very hard.

“We are short on GPs, but that shouldn’t affect the quality of the service.

“In Essex alone we could be losing 50 GPs through retirement and we can’t get young GPs coming from university.

“It’s a worry, and it doesn’t surprise me because the NHS in Essex is not in a good place."

Problems in bringing suitable personnel to GP surgeries in Essex were first uncovered by a countywide audit, commissioned in autumn 2014.

It found a GP vacancy rate of 6.3 per cent - above the national average - and that 55 GPs in Essex planned to leave their jobs within a year, mostly due to retirement.

In response, health bodies in the county created the Essex Primary Care Inter-Professional Centre, with the aim of attracting GPs to the area, which launched in September 2015.

But, as health bosses try to fill vacancies caused by retirements, the prospect of failing surgeries being forced to shut could act as a major setback to the recruitment drive.

The problem has been highlighted in Southend's most densely populated ward, Westborough, which has a population of 10,847, but could be left without a single GP by the end of the year.

Dr Sankar Bhattacharjee’s Westborough Road Health Centre could be closed after entering special measures last month.

The ward's only other surgery, also in Westborough Road, could also shut if Dr Marimuthu Velmurugan, 77, a borough councillor, takes on the role of mayor.

In Basildon, meanwhile, it has been estimated there is a £12.5million budget gap preventing the borough from finding the extra GP floor space it needs to meet demand by 2019.

Mr Bobbin added: “The practices today can’t get the GPs in and with new houses coming in, it’s going to be worse.

“We need extra practices anyway and if these existing practices don’t buck their ideas up they could be closed.”

Despite the stark warnings made to failing practices by the CQC, its chief inspector of general practice, Prof Steve Field, insists most sites respond well.

He said: "What’s enormously encouraging is that our inspections are driving improvement – 90 per cent of practices that we have re-inspected have improved since last October.

“There is still too much poor care. Since we began inspecting GP practices in October 2014 we have found over 100 practices to be inadequate.

"While this is a minority, this still amounts to over half a million patients in England who were not receiving the basic standards of care that they should be able to expect from their GP practice.

"I am glad to say that we have increasingly found that most practices that are placed in special measures use the support that is on offer to meet those standards.”

At present, there are five surgeries in south Essex which have been placed in special measures by the Care Quality Commission, with a warning they could be closed if they fail to improve within six months:

Dipple Medical Centre (Malling Health), Wickford Avenue, Pitsea, 4,470 patients

PA Patel Surgery, Hart Road, Benfleet, 2,573 patients

Ramanathan Surgery, London Road, Rayleigh, 4,380 patients

Leigh Beck Surgery (Dr Julius Sodipo), Long Road, Canvey, 1,643 patients

Westborough Road Health Centre (Dr Sankar Bhattacharjee ), Westborough Road, Westcliff, 3,723 patients

Inadequate (not in special measures):

Dr Sukumaran and Partners, Third Avenue, Canvey, 7,238 patients