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Hospital Trusts (Essex)

I welcome the close interest that the hon. Gentleman is showing in this issue. I want to give him the facts so that he can then make the necessary statements to local people in his constituency about the performance of the trust. I do not seek to put any spin on it; he can have those facts to show whether improvement is coming quickly enough. As I said to the hon. Member for Brentwood and Ongar (Mr. Pickles) a moment ago, improvement has been made this year on the mortality ratio. I shall give the hon. Member for Billericay (Mr. Baron) those figures, but the judgment is that the progress needs to escalate. The trust now has the benefit of two senior professionals from one of the highest-performing trusts in the country, both on the medical and the nursing side. We expect them to start work immediately and a programme office based at the trust will be monitoring and overseeing progress. I shall give him updates as and when they are available, but I agree with him that improvements need to be immediate.