A NEW GP service, which will see doctors go into care homes to treat elderly patients, is to be rolled out in Southend from April.

In a bid to cut down crippling waits to see a doctor in the area, Southend Clinical Commissioning Group (CCG) wanted to create a GP service for care-home patients only, with hundreds of care home residents in the borough.

And South Essex Partnership Trust (SEPT) has been awarded the £417,000 contract for the service, which will see them run a GP service from a yet-specified location, and have doctors visit care home patients, in a service that will be rolled out from April.

It is the latest idea from the CCG to try and ease long waiting times for doctors in Southend, and with more than 100 care homes in the borough, totalling over 2,000 beds, they claim a specialist service could cut down waits as elderly patients have the most complex health needs.

The chairman of the CCG, Dr José Garcia Lobera, who led the group of doctors that came up with the plan, said: “This pilot scheme is a key part of the work we and our partners are undertaking to support the local health system as a whole and improve patient care.

“In Southend there are more than 100 care homes with nearly 2000 beds, higher than the national average.

“Many of the residents of care homes have complex needs. This has placed additional pressure on local GP practices many of which are already struggling to provide sufficient capacity to registered patients.”

In the summer, the Echo revealed there is a chronic shortage of GPs in Southend, with one doctor per 1,556 patients across the borough.

An interim service, run by SEPT Southend GP Federation, has been running since December, which has seen GPs visit care homes instead of having patients trek to surgeries.

They have worked with West Road surgery and Ravensmere Rest Home, both in Westcliff, before the main service is rolled out in the spring.

Sheila Dennis, the manager of the Ravensmere, in Manor Road, said: “A lot of the time, we have to be the ears and eyes of our residents when they are ill, so being able to call doctors into the care home to see patients is really good for us.

“Having to take patients out to a doctor, especially in this weather, is not good.

“So this will be very beneficial for us.”

Because of a conflict in interests from GPs, the CCG’s Governing Body did not make the decision, instead its Quality, Finance, and Performance committee awarded the contract.