Having shared the good news a couple of weeks ago that the intermediate care beds at Brentwood Community Hospital are to stay as they are, and not be replaced by a specialist stroke unit, I have also been pleased to hear the Mid and South Essex Hospitals Trust has made improvements to its pathology services, including blood tests at the Community Hospital.
Pathology services across Mid and South Essex will be “harmonised” to better support the 143 GP practices and clinicians across the Trust’s hospitals in mid and south Essex. It will support a patient population of 1.2 million with tests including blood, tissue and other sample testing, as well as phlebotomy clinics for mid and south Essex.
By making this change, there should be improvements to efficiencies and testing turnaround times, which – I am told – will free up valuable NHS hospital resources for other patient services and create opportunities for staff development, training and innovation.
In simple terms, this will speed up results being delivered. For GPs it will provide a simpler process for referrals and will make it easier to access and share test results across the Mid and South Essex sites.
Patients will still be able to go to the same blood test clinics as before and there will be on site pathology teams in the three acute hospitals for in patient testing.
So, good news all round.
