SOUTHEND Hospital is celebrating its first year as a foundation trust The new status has transformed services and sealed it future success, the hospital claims.

The hospital already had an excellent record when it gained trust status in June 2006 and was allowed to take control of its finances and tailoring the services it provides to the needs of patients.

Now its achievements include meeting a 98 per cent target for dealing with accident and emergency patients within four hours. It also meets the national standards for out-patient treatments being able to see cancer patients within 31 days of diagnosis.

There is still room for improvement and the hospital admits it failed to see a small number of patients within the required 62 days from a GP's urgent referral. But all the signs are that such targets will soon be fully met.

Managers and governors believe the key to the hospital's success is giving people more say in services.

Anyone from patients to staff can become a member of the hospital and hold it to account with the help of the new board of governors. Although the hospital has only been a foundation trust for the past year, it has already 14,000 members.

John Bruce, chairman of both the board of governors and the board of directors, said the new status had been a great opportunity.

He said: "We didn't have a board of governors before. We are working hard to try and account for people's needs. I don't think we were bad at it before, but we have more opportunities now.

"There is more scope to engage with patients and other people in terms of what they think of our services and what they want us to do.

"We have meetings each month at different locations."

Mr Bruce said because people were in touch with them they were able to effect changes.

He added: "Recently, someone had written to ask why we didn't have covers for wheelchairs for people leaving the building.

"We now have throwaway plastic covers if people have to go outside when it's raining.

"Little things like that can make a difference."

The new status also allows the hospital to build up financial reserves.

Mr Bruce said: "It's important we generate surpluses to continue to invest in services. We couldn't do that before.

"We've got more choices with what we do with our money than we had before. We have recognised that means we have to be more careful. It has brought more freedom, but also greater responsibility."

He also praised staff and governors for the way they had tackled the challenge.

"A lot of people have given their time to make this possible. We are really pleased with how staff have pulled together.

"Governors put in their own time and they are not paid. They have worked hard to get us where we are."

The hospital is clearly doing something right in bucking the national trend for massive debts and not succumbing to rampant antibiotic resistant infections on wards.

Targets for the future include ensuring no patient waits longer than five weeks for an outpatient appointment by May 2008, cutting unnecessary follow-up outpatient visits and ensuring a surplus of £6.7million to invest in future services. A new car park in the north west corner of the Prittlewell Chase site is also planned.

Fellow governor Eve Horwood welcomed the new financial freedom.

She said: "The foundation trust status is of tremendous benefit to the public. Before if the cost of our services was below the average, we had to subsidise other national health services in the east of England which weren't as efficient. We no longer have to do that and any surpluses that result we can use to improve our services. We are beginning to see we can make a difference. It gives us the opportunity to find out what members and the general public want. We can then influence the directors."