BLUE light ambulances from Braintree and Witham will not be automatically sent to Basildon Hospital, after NHS bosses scrapped the plans.

NHS England plans to overhaul of A&E services in a bid to stem a £430 million deficit by 2020/21 and a staffing crisis which has seen hospitals frequently on black alert.

The Mid and South Essex Success Regime planned to create one specialist emergency centre at Basildon – leaving the remaining two hospitals at Broomfield and Southend to treat non-emergency and less serious cases.

All three hospitals are now set to keep their 24/7 blue light A&E departments to cater for serious emergency cases.

After listening to concerns, the regime has ruled out the blanket redirection of all blue light ambulances to Basildon.

Professor Christopher Green, chairman of the Friends of Braintree Community Hospital, said: “This is welcome news but we had got the impression it would be the case from the public meetings we hosted.

“We are more interested in what happens now and whether we are still to expect the consultation on the Success Regime to go ahead this summer?

“I am also interested to see what is happening in the district with primary care services struggling performance, which the CCG is also in charge of.”

Patients will now be assessed, stabilised and treated at their local hospital – with the most unwell patients transferred to a specialist team.

As is the case now, a small number of seriously ill patients will go straight to a specialist centre to get the best treatment – for example, people suffering severe burns go to Broomfield.

Clare Panniker, Chief Executive of Basildon, Broomfield and Southend Hospitals, said: “In considering our options, we have discussed with staff and local people the benefits of one hospital, possibly Basildon, providing the most serious emergency treatment.

“But, in the feedback from over 100 local discussion events, we have heard very clearly that some people have significant concerns about all ‘blue light’ ambulances going straight to Basildon.

“We have been thinking how we could address these concerns, and still improve patient care with different specialist teams across our three hospital sites and the separation of planned and emergency care.”