Essex Hospitals to be Guinea Pigs in NHS England’s New Regime

NHS England has set up a new scheme to help failing hospitals. The scheme is called The Success Regime and is being trialled in three areas across the country, and Essex is one of them.

Essex is categorised by the NHS as “a challenged health economy” – an area where health and care services face really serious problems. The Regime seeks to address deep-rooted and systemic issues at hospitals where previous interventions have not improved standards sufficiently.

The Regime will mean the NHS regulators will have a greater say as to how the hospitals in the area are run. The hospitals will be given support and direction in many areas including leadership, communication and budgeting.

Colchester Hospital University NHS Foundation Trust is still in special measures and will now be part of The Success Regime. The other areas to be trialled as part of the scheme are North Cumbria and Devon. NHS England will work with regulators Monitor, the NHS Trust Development Authority and the Care Quality Commission to deliver The Success Regime and attempt to turn things around in these areas.

Naomi Eady, Clinical Negligence Solicitor at TSP, comments: ‘Any pledge of this nature by government health organisations is welcome as it reflects an ongoing intention to improve the quality of healthcare in this country, and in this case, our local area. However, the details of how The Success Regime is to work in practice still appear rather vague and it is unclear as to how exactly the scheme will change the running of our hospitals in Essex. Hopefully as the Regime unfolds more details will be available so the public can see what is being done’.