A body set up to improve standards throughout the NHS is preparing to take a patient's eye view of Southend Hospital.

The Commission for Health Improvement visit, scheduled for June, is part of a rolling programme to scrutinise every trust, health authority, primary care group and trust in the next four years.

CHI chairman, Dame Deirdre Hine, said: "We want the NHS to see itself as the patients see it. Sometimes that will be painful, but it is essential to providing a better service."

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