At the start of the pandemic, we joined forces with our partners from Mid and South Essex Health and Care Partnership and volunteers across the county to create over 130 new beds for patients at our Brentwood Community Hospital to ensure our communities in the area continued to receive safe and professional care.

Earlier this month we opened four new wards and introduced 138 new patient beds across the hospital. The new beds will be available for patients who need recovery and rehabilitation after leaving an acute hospital, as well as patients who need care or treatment that cannot be managed in their home or at a care home. These beds will also help to avoid hospital admissions, ensuring our colleagues at acute hospitals can continue to treat critically ill patients.

The new wards and beds are a result of the partnership working between health and social care providers in Essex, including Essex Partnership University NHS Foundation Trust, the four CCGs in the system, Essex County Council and the two unitary Authorities in Southend and Thurrock , who all worked hard together following the outbreak of the pandemic to change how care was provided to patients in the community to ensure people could still get the help they needed. With the support of volunteers and organisations such as the fire brigade, ambulance service and the army, Brentwood Community Hospital was able to transform in a matter of weeks from 20 patient beds in one ward, to 158 patient beds across five wards.

Stephanie Dawe, Chief Nurse and Executive Director of Integrated Care at NELFT, said: “Everybody has come together like never before so people in mid and south Essex can get intensive rehabilitation and care once they've been discharged from an acute hospital.

“We couldn't have done this alone. Boundaries between organisations, NHS trusts and public bodies disappeared at the beginning of the pandemic so we could work hand-in-glove, shoulder to shoulder, with our health and care providers in Essex on every single part of this hospital.

“We have always worked in close partnership with the Mid and South Essex Health and Care Partnership, but the pandemic has meant we have worked closer than ever before. What we have achieved at Brentwood Community Hospital is a testament to what true partnership working can do.”

Stephanie said: “It is so uplifting to hear stories of our patients who have fully recovered and are able to leave hospital.

“It’s remarkable that our staff are part of the care and recovery of elderly patients after what will have been a very challenging time for them. We’re proud that our partnership with health and care organisations in mid and south Essex is leading to stories of patients finally going home.