CONCERNS continue to surround an NHS referral system in which Braintree residents are sent nearly 10 miles away for routine medical treatment, rather than to the community facility in the town.
Fears that the NHS's Central Referral System was jeopardising the future of Braintree Community Hospital had first been voiced during a discussion in the Town Hall in February this year.
Many residents and politicians grilled guest speakers, including GPs and Clinical Commissioning Group (CCG) administrators, on why the practice, by which patients are sent to Broomfield Hospital for routine treatment, was being allowed to continue.
And on October 14 Friends of Braintree Community Hospital held its fourth public meeting where patients had the opportunity to raise these issues again.
Professor Chris Green, chairman of the Friends, whose trustees met on Tuesday to decide their next move, said: "There's not been anything like this meeting in Essex before.
"It was a very frank but good-tempered meeting and residents got the chance to ask questions they wouldn't normally be able to ask.
"One of the recurring answers from speakers was 'we have got no money', which does raise the question: what can the NHS do?
"It's a national issue but one thing that was raised by a GP was that the old style of family doctor is a thing of the past. There is a lot of box-ticking now and there are managers on huge salaries when that money could be spent on services."
Fears around the future of the community hospital, based on Chadwick Drive, began after private firm Serco backed out of a four-year contract to run the facility in December 2013, citing a lack of patients as the reason.
Management for the hospital has now returned to the Mid Essex Hospitals Trust but concerns as to how it is run have continued.
Five guest speakers were at the discussion of these worries on Tuesday, including Bryan Spencer, deputy chairman of Mid Essex Clinical Commissioning Group, Peter Mayo, GP at the Blandford Medical Centre in Braintree, Linda Cutts, practice manager at Freshwell Health Centre in Finchingfield, Paula Williams, chief pharmacist of NHS Mid Essex, and Ian Stidston, director of commissioning at NHS England in Essex.
The Friends also plan to invite each parliamentary candidate to answer questions from the public about whether the NHS is safe in their hands at a date nearer to the 2015 general election.
"Given the turbulence in this constituency after Brooks Newmark's standing down, that is going to be an important issue," said Professor Green.
He added: "The referral system is still a massive issue and we need to know what is happening."
