Marie Goldman MP told a Westminster Hall debate 8.1% of patients at Broomfield's trust wait over a year, against 1.5% nationally, and asked who is accountable.
Marie Goldman, the MP for Chelmsford, has told the Government that the trust running Broomfield Hospital is still one of the worst performing in the country, seven months after it was placed in the Government’s Intensive Recovery Programme.
She raised it in a Westminster Hall debate on Wednesday 14 October. “I would rather not claim the prize for one of the worst-performing trusts in the country, but the numbers don’t lie,” she said.
The figures she quoted
According to her office, just 50.4% of patients at Mid and South Essex NHS Foundation Trust (MSEFT) are treated within 18 weeks, against a national average of 65.2%. And 8.1% wait more than a year, against an average of 1.5%.
The staff figures are as stark. Only 38% of the trust’s staff would be happy with the standard of care if a friend or relative needed treatment at their hospital, her office says, compared with 61% nationally. That figure comes from the trust’s 2025 NHS Staff Survey benchmark report; the waiting time figures come from NHS England’s statistics.
Her office also says the trust’s Care Quality Commission rating has not improved despite six years of intervention.
Mould, a queue and closed theatres
In the debate Ms Goldman described accounts she has had from patients and staff, including mould on a children’s ward, an elderly patient left standing in an A&E queue, and operating theatres forced to close during the summer heat. She also said the trust’s leadership had no plan to stop heat closing theatres again next summer.
“Broomfield Hospital fills my inbox every day with stories from patients and staff,” she said. “Staff are doing their very best, but they are not getting the support they need. Patients are paying the price.”
Who is in charge of the recovery?
Ms Goldman’s main charge is that the Government’s recovery programme lacks detail and accountability. She has written to ministers three times, her office says, and has been given different explanations of how it will work each time, from responsibility resting with the trust’s own board to enhanced support from NHS England.
“Six years of intervention and two recovery programmes have not delivered the improvements people need,” she said. “Now we have a new programme, but where is the detail? Who is responsible for delivering change? Who independently checks whether it is working? And what happens if it fails?”
She added: “Patients in Chelmsford and the staff who care for them deserve better. I will keep pressing the Government until it delivers the change our NHS needs.”
Her full contribution to the debate can be watched on Parliamentlive.tv.
Ms Goldman’s earlier statement on the Lampard Inquiry into mental health inpatient deaths in Essex is here.
Have your say