Asked by: James McMurdock (Independent - South Basildon and East Thurrock)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what comparative assessment he has made of accident and emergency performance at (a) Basildon Hospital, (b) other hospitals within Mid and South Essex NHS Foundation Trust and (c) other national trusts.
Answered by Karin Smyth - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
The Government acknowledges that urgent and emergency care performance has not consistently met expectations in recent years. The Government is committed to restoring urgent and emergency care waiting times to the standards set out in the NHS Constitution by the end of this Parliament, as laid out in our 10-Year Health Plan.
NHS England publishes monthly data on the proportion of patients seen, admitted, transferred, or discharged within four hours in accident and emergency departments. The following table shows the latest figures as of November 2025 for the four-hour performance rates for Basildon Hospital, other hospitals within the Mid and South Essex NHS Foundation Trust, and the national rate:
Month | Area | Percentage of total accident and emergency type 1 and 2 attendances admitted, transferred, or discharged within four hours |
Latest provisional performance data for November 2025 | England | 61.2% |
Basildon | 54.2% | |
Mid Essex Hospital | 52.9% | |
Southend Hospital | 53.4% | |
Mid and South Essex NHS Foundation Trust | 53.6% |
Note: site level performance data is only published as type 1 and 2 performance.
Further information is available at the following link:
Asked by: James McMurdock (Independent - South Basildon and East Thurrock)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what assessment he has made of the potential impact of unrecovered income on a) NHS trust finances and b) service delivery.
Answered by Karin Smyth - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
No formal assessment has been made of the potential impact of unrecovered income from the charging of overseas visitors on either National Health Service trust finances or service delivery.
However, we continue to work with NHS England to ensure that the system of NHS cost recovery works as effectively and fairly as possible.
Asked by: James McMurdock (Independent - South Basildon and East Thurrock)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, whether he has made an assessment of the potential impact of Private Finance Initiative arrangements on the future of healthcare provision in (a) South Basildon and East Thurrock constituency and (b) mid and south Essex.
Answered by Karin Smyth - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
The Department is supporting National Infrastructure and Service Transformation Authority to develop the new Public Private Partnership (PPP) model for Neighbourhood Health Centres (NHCs). The new NHC PPP model will build on lessons from the past including the National Audit Office’s 2025 report on private finance and other models currently in use, which is avaiable at the following link:
The new PPP model is about delivering the infrastructure to support the delivery of neighbourhood services, and we are not using the private sector to deliver the National Health Service clinical services that will be delivered from these centres.
The need for NHCs will be locally driven and will recognise what already exists and where additional provision or a new combination of services is needed. Funding of these NHCs under any new PPP model will need to demonstrate value for money and affordability.
Asked by: James McMurdock (Independent - South Basildon and East Thurrock)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, with reference to his Department's press release entitled New ambulances deployed to boost NHS winter response, published on 31 December 2025, how many new ambulances have been allocated to Essex.
Answered by Karin Smyth - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
The 500 new ambulances announced in the Department’s press release of 31 December 2025 form part of East of England Ambulance NHS Foundation Trust’s wider ambulance replacement and expansion programme.
Allocations have not been finalised at individual county level, meaning it is not possible at this stage to confirm how many of these vehicles will be deployed in Essex.
Asked by: James McMurdock (Independent - South Basildon and East Thurrock)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, with reference to the planned closure of the University of Essex's Southend Campus, what plans he has to increase the provision of health and social care-related courses.
Answered by Karin Smyth - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
While the Government is committed to ensuring sustainable training pathways for health and care professions, higher education institutions are independent providers and are responsible for making their own decisions about course delivery and viability based on learner demand and provider capacity.
The closure of the University of Essex Southend campus is a consolidation of oral health, adult, and mental health nursing courses to their main campus at Colchester. This is not expected to negatively impact overall training numbers or local recruitment to these professions.
Asked by: James McMurdock (Independent - South Basildon and East Thurrock)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, with reference to the planned closure of the University of Essex's Southend Campus, what assessment his Department has made of the availability of health and social care staff in south Essex in the next five years.
Answered by Karin Smyth - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
While the Government is committed to ensuring sustainable training pathways for health and care professions, higher education institutions are independent providers and are responsible for making their own decisions about course delivery and viability based on learner demand and provider capacity.
The closure of the University of Essex Southend campus is a consolidation of oral health, adult, and mental health nursing courses to their main campus at Colchester. This is not expected to negatively impact overall training numbers or local recruitment to these professions.
Asked by: James McMurdock (Independent - South Basildon and East Thurrock)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, with reference to the planned closure of the University of Essex's Southend Campus, what assessment his Department has made of the provision of dentistry training in south Essex in the next five years.
Answered by Karin Smyth - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
While the Government is committed to ensuring sustainable training pathways for health and care professions, higher education institutions are independent providers and are responsible for making their own decisions about course delivery and viability based on learner demand and provider capacity.
The closure of the University of Essex Southend campus is a consolidation of oral health, adult, and mental health nursing courses to their main campus at Colchester. This is not expected to negatively impact overall training numbers or local recruitment to these professions.
Asked by: James McMurdock (Independent - South Basildon and East Thurrock)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what steps he is taking to reduce risk of negligence in Accident and Emergency waiting rooms.
Answered by Zubir Ahmed - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
The rising costs of clinical negligence claims against the National Health Service in England are of great concern to the Government. Costs have more than doubled in the last 10 years and are forecast to continue rising, putting further pressure on NHS finances.
As announced in the 10-Year Health Plan for England, David Lock KC is providing expert policy advice on the rising costs of clinical negligence and how we can improve patients’ experience of claims. The review is ongoing, following initial advice to ministers and the recent National Audit Office report.
Over recent years, the NHS and the Department have taken significant steps forward to address the rising costs of clinical negligence and to improve patient safety, including by implementing significant programmes under the NHS Patient Safety Strategy, published 2019. The strategy is now achieving its aim of saving an extra 1,000 lives per year and £100 million in care costs per year.
In addition, the Government is committed to restoring urgent and emergency care waiting times to the standards set out in the NHS Constitution by the end of this Parliament, as laid out in out 10-Year Health Plan. The NHS Medium-Term Planning Framework sets out a clear trajectory to improve urgent and emergency care performance year-on-year, reducing long waits and improving patient experience.
Asked by: James McMurdock (Independent - South Basildon and East Thurrock)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what steps is he taking to help tackle the causes of negligence claims received by the NHS.
Answered by Zubir Ahmed - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
The rising costs of clinical negligence claims against the National Health Service in England are of great concern to the Government. Costs have more than doubled in the last 10 years and are forecast to continue rising, putting further pressure on NHS finances.
As announced in the 10-Year Health Plan for England, David Lock KC is providing expert policy advice on the rising costs of clinical negligence and how we can improve patients’ experience of claims. The review is ongoing, following initial advice to ministers and the recent National Audit Office report.
Over recent years, the NHS and the Department have taken significant steps forward to address the rising costs of clinical negligence and to improve patient safety, including by implementing significant programmes under the NHS Patient Safety Strategy, published 2019. The strategy is now achieving its aim of saving an extra 1,000 lives per year and £100 million in care costs per year.
In addition, the Government is committed to restoring urgent and emergency care waiting times to the standards set out in the NHS Constitution by the end of this Parliament, as laid out in out 10-Year Health Plan. The NHS Medium-Term Planning Framework sets out a clear trajectory to improve urgent and emergency care performance year-on-year, reducing long waits and improving patient experience.
Asked by: James McMurdock (Independent - South Basildon and East Thurrock)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what proportion of Category 2 calls in the East of England were responded to within national target times in the last 12 months.
Answered by Karin Smyth - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
The current national target for Category 2 (C2) incidents is an average response time of 30 minutes. The National Health Service constitutional standard is 18 minutes. The Medium Term Planning Framework outlines plans to move towards achieving the constitutional standard over the coming years.
For the East of England Ambulance Service Trust (EEAST), data on the exact proportion of calls meeting this target is not centrally collected or routinely published for the last 12 months.
For each of the past 12 months, the average response time for C2 incidents at EEAST exceeded the national target. The following table provides monthly figures for the number of C2 incidents and the corresponding mean response times:
Month | Number of C2 incidents at EEAST | C2 mean response time at EEAST |
December 2024 | 45,473 | 0:57:20 |
January 2025 | 42,792 | 0:41:23 |
February 2025 | 38,514 | 0:36:55 |
March 2025 | 42,744 | 0:32:25 |
April 2025 | 39,861 | 0:36:18 |
May 2025 | 40,547 | 0:32:11 |
June 2025 | 40,484 | 0:32:51 |
July 2025 | 43,153 | 0:32:35 |
August 2025 | 42,204 | 0:30:55 |
September 2025 | 41,430 | 0:35:59 |
October 2025 | 44,457 | 0:40:41 |
November 2025 | 44,168 | 0:37:27 |
Source: Ambulance Quality Indicators, avaiable at the following link:
https://www.england.nhs.uk/statistics/statistical-work-areas/ambulance-quality-indicators/