Secondary Care is any care that a service user receives for their illness or condition that occurs outside of Primary Care. It is sometimes referred to as hospital and community care and involves specialist services that are usually provided in hospitals or clinics.
Secondary Care services can include:
- Acute Care – Provided in a hospital setting when the illness or condition is urgent.
- Planned or Elective Care – Provided in either a hospital or a community-based setting.
- Specialist Clinics – Such as cardiology, renal or outpatient clinics.
- Rehabilitation Services – Such as physiotherapy.
- Mental Health Services.
Secondary Care Services in Essex
Acute Services
Acute trusts provide short-term hospital-based or emergency health services. Our acute service providers in Essex are:
Mid and South Essex NHS Foundation Trust who operate the hospital sites at Basildon, Southend and Broomfield. They also provide community services at Orsett Hospital, Braintree Hospital, St Peter’s Hospital in Maldon, St Michael’s Hospital in Braintree and Tyler’s Ride South Woodham Ferrers Health Centre.
Princess Alexandra Hospital NHS Trust provide a full range of general acute, outpatient and diagnostic services at The Princess Alexandra Hospital in Harlow, the Herts and Essex Hospital in Bishop’s Stortford, and St Margaret’s Hospital in Epping.
East Suffolk and North Essex NHS Foundation Trust provide hospital and community health care services for Colchester, Ipswich and local areas.
The Trust provide services from Colchester and Ipswich hospitals, Aldeburgh, Clacton, Halstead, Harwich and Felixstowe community hospitals and Bluebird Lodge near Ipswich. They also provide community services in Suffolk and north Essex.
Emergency Services
Ambulance services are a vital part of the NHS’s emergency response system and they connect primary, community and secondary care.
In Essex, our emergency service provider is The East of England Ambulance NHS Trust and they provide accident and emergency services for people in need of urgent medical treatment and transport to hospital in Bedfordshire, Essex, Norfolk, Suffolk and Cambridgeshire.
The East of England Ambulance Service is made up of over 5,000 members of staff and over 1,000 volunteers.
They have three ambulance operations centres located in Bedford, Chelmsford and Norwich.
They operate:
- 498 frontline vehicles
- 73 rapid response vehicles
- 194 non-emergency ambulances (Patient Transport Services)
- 51 hazardous area response team (HART), major incidents and resilience vehicles
(accurate as at May 2024)
Community Services
Community trusts provide community-based services to NHS patients.
In Essex, our community-based services are provided by a number of organisations including North East London NHS Foundation Trust, Provide Community and The Essex Partnership University Trust depending on the service and treatment required.
Mental Health Services
Mental health trusts provide inpatient or community-based mental health services.
In Essex, our mental health services provider is The Essex Partnership University Trust who provide community health, mental health and learning disability services to support more than 3.2 million people living across Luton and Bedfordshire, Essex and Suffolk.
Essex Partnership University Trust employ over 5,500 staff who work across more than 200 sites. They also provide services in people’s homes and community settings.