A TROUBLE shooter has been drafted in to end delays in establishing Integrated Medical Centres in Thurrock.
Tiffany Hemming told the council’s Health and Wellbeing Overview and Scrutiny committee she had been “parachuted in” to deliver four new Integrated Medical Centres (IMCs) in the borough.
Corringham IMC will be the first to open in late July.
The existing Corringham health centre, which was due to be demolished, will now remain open along with its GP services, to create a “campus” across the two sites.
From September, a team of 12 newly qualified GPs will be based at the new Corringham’s centre under a GP fellowship scheme, which will boost availability of appointments for surgeries around the borough.
Each of the new GPs will also study a specialism, eventually running clinics for things such as dermatology, gynaecology and cardiology.
The centres, expected to be open by the end of 2025, will offer a range of community health services including blood tests and ultrasounds.
Acute and out-patient services at the centres will include screening for abdominal aortic aneurysms, weak spots in an abdominal artery that can burst suddenly and be fatal.
Ms Hemming said: “In terms of primary care provision what we are going to do is work towards integrating the GP care with the community services and the acute patient services.
“If for example you have got diabetes and you normally go to your GP, you see the community diabetes nurse and maybe you also go to outpatient appointments all in different places, in the future as we develop our service more fully you will be able to have a single appointment.”
IMCs are also being planned for Purfleet-on-Thames, Tilbury and Grays, which are at various stages of planning and will take over services currently offered at Orsett Hospital due to close in 2024.
Councillors expressed concern over the progress of the other centres. Jane Pothecary, Labour councillor for Grays Riverside, said: “This process so far has not inspired me with confidence that this process can move quickly enough. What is the guarantee that if we don’t get these over the line by 2025?
Ms Hemming said the closure of Orsett was “completely linked” to the opening of the IMCs.
