A SCHEME redirecting patients from A&E to a doctor based inside the crisis-hit Basildon Hospital is not working, NHS bosses have said.

NHS funded the system, which also operates at Southend Hospital, after claims that up to 40 per cent of UK patients were arriving at A&E with minor symptoms that could be treated by a doctor.

A nurse and GP section was set up at Basildon Hospital in December 2017, seven days a week from 9am to 11pm. But some days just nine patients used the service, Basildon Clinical Commissioning Group (CCG) Board was told on Thursday.

It comes after Basildon Hospital dropped all of its planned operations due to an exceptionally high number of sick patients. Earlier this month, Basildon Hospital was listed as Opel 3 alert status for the first time ever, which means patient flow is compromised and decisions have to be made at the highest level.

CCG board members were asked to consider scrapping the scheme from March 31 as the same doctor, nurse and administrator could have dealt with 100 patients in a GP surgery.

But several GPs, nurses and officers objected, pointing to success at Southend Hospital, where more than 45 patients a day are using the service.

The board’s chief nurse and acting chief officer, Lisa Allen, said: “We have to have it. We have to have primary care streaming. It just needs some tweaks.”

Dr Julia Hale, consultant for secondary care, said: “The same model is working in Southend. If the framework is working elsewhere, it’s an implementation issue. It’s about performance monitoring.

“What monitoring is going on at the moment? We need something quite robust.”

Katherine Kirk MBE, board lay member and governance committee chair, questioned whether staff working with the scheme.

“So Basildon Hospital is not co-operating? The problem is not the model. It’s the hospital. Am I right?”

Board members questioned why they were funding a hospital service, but it was explained that the CCG was responsible for “front door hospital services” in Essex.

Board chair Dr Arv Guniyangodage said an urgent review was necessary, but agreed a suspension should be put on hold.

A majority of members agreed not to suspend the service, but to make checks with Basildon Hospital and report back in two months on how it is working.