Our major activity in recent weeks has been our independent academic survey about accessibility to healthcare services in the SWF, Dengie & Maldon Integrated Neighbourhood Team area. Hopefully you have completed the survey which has been extended for submissions which now close at 2359 on Wednesday 7 May 2025. If not please do so before it’s too late (click here for the survey). We need your experience and views to enable us to lobby for improvements in communicating with providers of health services when we need them and to enable us to travel to appointments, diagnostic tests and treatments locally, at local hospitals and from emergency and specialist providers.

Working Group Recommendations for Community Health Services include investing to keep St Peter’s Hospital, Maldon operational for five years while funding is assembled for a purpose-built new facility, ideally on the current site. This will maintain all existing outpatient, investigative and therapy services. The NHS cannot efficiently operate Inpatient Care in Maldon due to low utilisation. Stroke and Birthing Services will be consolidated as near as possible. Decisions will be made in the coming months.

Winter illnesses have peaked. In week 17:

• influenza (flu) activity decreased across most indicators and was at baseline levels
• COVID-19 activity remained stable across most indicators and was circulating at baseline levels
• respiratory syncytial virus (RSV) activity decreased across indicators and was circulating at baseline levels.

Norovirus activity remains high but has stabilised in the recent weeks. The total norovirus laboratory reports between weeks 10-13 of 2025 was more than double (149.3%) the 5-season average for the same period. There are still many new local cases each week. You can catch Norovirus twice. If you have Norovirus

• Stay home; don’t return to work or school until two days after the vomiting and diarrhoea have stopped
• Drink plenty
• Wash hands regularly with soap and water; disinfectants and alcohol hand-gels don’t work well against the virus
• If you’re concerned – eg if a child can’t keep fluids down or the illness doesn’t stop after a few days – seek medical advice.

Integrated Care Systems have to reduce budgets by 50% and will be rearranged to cover larger areas and populations. Mid & South Essex ICB will have to lose many staff to achieve this and must do so by October. It’s likely ‘our’ ICB will cover at least Greater Essex. This is part of the plan to improve NHS efficiency. Local community operations undertaken by Primary Care Networks and Integrated Neighbourhood Teams, which are improving GP performances, seem to be unaffected.

The English GPs ‘strike’ has been settled.    

English Community pharmacies are considering starting to work to rule unless a new NHS contract is agreed.

Spring Covid-19 vaccinations continue to be available from GPs, the NHS national booking system https://www.nhs.uk/nhs-services/vaccination-and-booking-services/book-covid-19-vaccination/ and local pharmacies.

A new UKHSA campaign has launched to keep antibiotics working and tackle antibiotic resistance:

• Do not take antibiotics for colds and flu, for which they don’t work. This remains one of the biggest misconceptions about taking antibiotics.
• Only take antibiotics when you have been prescribed them and taking them as directed by a healthcare professional.
• Don’t save antibiotics for future use.

World Health Organization Members have agreed a legally binding treaty designed to avoid the disorganisation and competition for resources seen during the Covid-19 outbreak.

A scheme to help GPs provide care and advice to patients without them joining long NHS hospital waiting lists is being expanded. English. GPs will work closely with specialists to access expert advice for patients with conditions such as irritable bowel syndrome, menopause symptoms and ear infections.

In March Mid & South Essex Foundation Trust’s performance for Broomfield, Basildon and Southend Hospitals was:

Cuts to NHS England ring fenced budgets see maternity, prevention, mental health and children’s services suffering the biggest cuts according to the HSJ, the health service journal for healthcare leaders. The rest of the money will instead be given to the Integrated Care Boards (ICBs) that decide how the health service funding is allocated locally. So what will our Mid & South Essex ICB do with it? We know midwifery services aren’t as good as they should be. Our mental health services are subject to a public inquiry. Our children’s special needs services are the worst in the country and we know prevention will lower serious illnesses. We will ask about this.

On 28 & 29 April we published the following separately online only as we couldn’t fit them into the space we have in monthly Issues of Focus:

• “Invincible Feeling, Invisible Danger: Take control of your blood pressure today” https://swfhealthsocial.co.uk/2025/04/28/invincible-feeling-invisible-danger-take-control-of-your-blood-pressure-today/
• “Clinical trial identifies potential new antibiotic for gonorrhoea” https://swfhealthsocial.co.uk/2025/04/28/clinical-trial-identifies-potential-new-antibiotic-for-gonorrhoea/
• “GPs to keep millions out of hospital” https://swfhealthsocial.co.uk/2025/04/28/gps-to-keep-millions-out-of-hospital/
• “New pill to extend life from breast cancer” https://swfhealthsocial.co.uk/2025/04/29/new-pill-to-extend-life-from-breast-cancer/
• “Saliva test may ‘turn the tide’ on prostate cancer” https://swfhealthsocial.co.uk/2025/04/29/saliva-test-may-turn-the-tide-on-prostate-cancer/

More Public Health news is on our website and in weekly e-newsletters. SWF Library provides online services and help with internet access. For health & welfare information and subscription to our newsletter, email swfhealthsocial@outlook.com , or leave voicemails on 01245 322079.

https://swfhealthsocial.co.uk/