This week in Westminster I arranged for Essex MPs and the Health Minister to meet with the head of the Mid and South Essex Hospitals Trust which includes Broomfield, Basildon and Southend Hospitals.
Performance has improved; waiting lists are falling, time to diagnosis for cancer patients is getting shorter, A&E wait times and ambulance performance have also improved. Last year our local hospitals treated 4% more patients than in the year prior to the pandemic. In the coming year, from 1 April, they plan to treat 8% more than pre-pandemic.
There are now around 100 patients who have waited 78 months or more for elective treatment. This is down from a peak of around 3,000. They expect to have no patients waiting 65 weeks or more by the end of June. The Trust plans to have no more than 475 patients waiting over 62 days to start Cancer Treatment by the end of March.
In February the average handover time for Ambulance patients arriving at A&E was 24 minutes, well ahead of regional average. Currently 71% of patients waited less than 4 hours at A&E. They anticipate being at 76% by June. This is a very significant improvement on last year.
Many different projects have driven these improvements, including more efficient use of elective surgery theatres in Braintree, which have treated around 2,000 patients this year and are planned to grow to 3,500 patients next year, new community diagnostics services, improvements to discharge and many other measures.
The hospitals hope to be the first Hospital Trust in the country to roll out Electronic Patient Records which combine the patient records of Hospital Trust, Community Providers and Mental Health Trust services.
I met with the head of the Environment Agency for the East of England to discuss flood risk mitigation for Chelmsford. Extensive modelling is currently underway to identify key points of risk and potential improvement measures. This has involved detailed surveying of the area and is especially complex due to the “three river” nature of Chelmsford.
I also met with the new head of Ofsted. We discussed my concerns about children missing out on school, provision for children with Special Educational Needs and Disabilities and the use of part time timetables. He is very focused on the need for every school to be inclusive and will be making it very clear that all schools need to focus on this in an upcoming speech to National Association of Head Teachers.
In Chelmsford city centre, I met with representatives from Historic England. They had written to me to tell me that the “West End” of Chelmsford has been listed at a “Heritage at Risk” site. This includes the streets near the bus station. In our walkabout, they pointed out some lovely older buildings and architectural features, some of which could do with repair. There are grants which could be available to property owners. Please do contact my office if you own a business or property in this area and want to know more. I will be writing to Network Rail to see if they could clear some of the vegetation from the viaduct which would help protect the arches and neaten up the area.
Last September, I wrote to the Chief Constable of Essex Police and our Police, Fire and Crime Commissioner for Essex, Roger Hirst, to ask for more police patrols in the city centre. Since then, our local city centre police team have been very active.
In the past six months in the city centre they have arrested 49 people for drug dealing, and 29 for drug possession, 164 for assault, 55 for criminal damage, 160 for theft (including shoplifting, theft of cycles and motor vehicles as well as theft from the person), 36 drink and drug drivers, 42 people for affray, 37 for offensive weapons, 38 people for harassment, 24 for burglary, 7 for robbery and 7 for immigration offences. There have also been a number of other arrests for other offences.
Chelmsford in a safe city, anti-social behaviour has dropped dramatically. These measures by our local police are a clear message: Those that wish to commit crimes are not welcome in Chelmsford.
It was a delight to pop down to the county cricket ground to meet with players, coaches and staff getting ready for the new season. Essex Cricket is undoubtedly the best performing county in the country especially when one looks at all the different formats, the achievements of the ability and women’s teams as well the men’s teams. They also do a huge amount of work in the community across the East of England and in East London. We are so lucky to have them in Chelmsford.
Lastly, I really enjoyed joining children from St Pius School on the last day of term where students were treating parents and pupils to a superb rock concert. I was very impressed by all the performances and the encouragement of all the children for their peers. Thank you especially to Eliza and Vanushlea who have been leading projects to reduce waste, save water and electricity and recycle more both at St Pius and with other schools. All the pupils were very excited about the upcoming Easter holiday. I do hope all the readers have enjoyed a good break over Easter.
