Two new initiatives to improve healthcare in Thurrock have been approved.

The first ever primary care standards plan for the borough was unanimously agreed at last night's Cabinet meeting and will see Thurrock Council implement new methods of oversight for the borough’s clinicians to drive improvement locally.

Firstly, Thurrock Council’s Public Health team will work with NHS Thurrock Clinical Commissioning Group (CCG) and Thurrock Healthwatch to spearhead a new drive for Patient Participation Groups, which play a key role in assisting GP practices improve patient care.

The groups provide advice to practices by making positive suggestions on how it can improve as well as encouraging health promotion activities within the practice and the wider community.

The second initiative sees Thurrock Public Heath monitoring key indicators for how practices are treating long-term conditions. Using the findings, a scorecard for each practice will be developed, which will enable Thurrock Council and Thurrock CCG to work with the practice to hold to account and identify the cause and provide support where necessary.

Speaking after presenting his report, Portfolio Holder for Education and Health, Cllr James Halden, said: “These new measures will help begin to re-build residents’ confidence in primary healthcare in Thurrock. We want to give them more power and bigger say of how their GP surgery works.

“By expanding the Patient Participation Groups, residents will have a real voice when decisions are made within their surgery.

“The figures we will be looking at are just the start of the conversation we intend to have with GPs. By identifying variations in performance, we can engage with GPs and be a critical friend to work together in exploring what the cause is and provide assistance through peer support.

“There is no excuse for poor performance in Thurrock and as well as pointing the finger, our residents – the people of Thurrock deserve better.

”We will continue to extend a helping hand to clinicians so we can improve standards.”