Kemi Badenoch MP visited Broomfield hospital recently to hear more about the improvements they are making to patient care.
Mrs Badenoch was joined by Chelmsford City and Essex County councillor Mike Steel and met with Chief Executive of Mid and South Essex NHS Foundation Trust Matthew Hopkins, Medical Director Laura Harding, Director of Nursing Melaine Chamber, External Affairs Manager Louise Banks and teams on the wards.
They discussed a wide range of issues, from the hospital's recovery post pandemic, staffing retention, waiting times and improvements to patient care.
They also discussed how the NHS Long Term Workforce Plan will impact the hospital. The Plan was commissioned by the government to set out a series of interventions train, retain and reform the workforce, and put the NHS on a sustainable footing into the future.
Backed by more than £2.4 billion in government investment ahead of the health service’s 75th anniversary, it sets out how the NHS will address existing vacancies and meet the challenges of a growing and aging population by recruiting and retaining hundreds of thousands more staff over the next 15 years and reforming the way we work.
Commenting, Mrs Badenoch said:
“Cllr Steel and I saw firsthand some of the changes Broomfield Hospital have made to patient care, specifically around nutrition and hydration, risk assessments and mental capacity assessments.
“We discussed the challenges the Trust is facing, upcoming Winter pressures and the impact of the Government’s Long Term Workforce plan. The Government is committed to investing in our health and public services to help tackle the elective backlog and ensure health care services in our constituency have the resources needed to recover from the impact of Covid-19.”
Commenting, Matthew Hopkins Chief Executive said:
“I was very pleased to meet Kemi and to share my vision for improving the quality of care we provide to the people of mid and south Essex. I am keen to work with all our elected representatives to share feedback and to highlight the great work happening across our hospitals.
“We were able to visit Bardfield Ward and see examples of some of the work we are doing in older people’s care, including new initiatives for being a dementia friendly Trust. This included specially designed cutlery and plates to enable independent eating and personalised care plans.”
