Yesterday, the Mid and South Essex NHS Foundation Trust (which runs Basildon, Broomfield and Southend Hospitals) announced that they have received £8 million of Government money, from the Department of Health and Social Care (DHSC), to completely remodel the A&E Department at Southend Hospital.

This money is intended to completely revamp the A&E Department, not just to increase its capacity, but also to make it a better working environment and one in which there can be a more efficient flow of patients that need help.

The work will be completed in stages, some of which will begin in the next few months and with the whole project intended to be finished by the spring of 2024.

Commenting on this welcome news, Mark Francois MP said

"Alongside my neighbouring colleagues; Anna Firth MP, Rebecca Harris MP and Sir James Duddridge MP, we all have been lobbying hard for this money for some time, so I am delighted that this funding has now been secured to expand capacity at Southend's A&E department.”

“As well as providing an improved A&E Department, this will hopefully also have the added benefit of reducing the time that ambulances may have to wait in the car park at Southend Hospital (about which, unsurprisingly, I have received a lot of correspondence from constituents in recent months.)”

“This one project will not solve all of the challenges at Southend Hospital, but it is critically important, and so I am very pleased to see that the money has finally come through and will be put to good use.”