Jeremy Hunt visited to visit Broomfield Hospital this morning to discuss patient quality and safety.

The Health Secretary arrived through the back entrance around 11.30am.

His visit was to hear from teams at Broomfield about their work around improvement to the quality and safety of care for patients.

Mr Hunt discussed patient safety across the country, the role of the Care Quality Commission, performance and patient satisfaction.

Speaking about his visit Mr Hunt said: “There is some fantastic work going on at Broomfield to improve patient safety and it was a great opportunity to meet staff ‎and hear about their initiatives.

"It's been a challenging winter but the trust's hard work to create the Emergency Village and Frailty Ward to support A&E shows how the whole hospital is taking responsibility to improve patient safety and flow.”

He then welcomed James Titcombe to share the tragic story of the death of his baby son, Joshua, at just nine days old.

James discussed his campaign, and intent to find out what happened and improve patient safety at the trust where his son was born.

The visit concluded with questions from the audience.

Nick Alston, chairman of the trust, said: “We were delighted to welcome Mr Hunt to our trust today in order to hear about patient safety from a national perspective.

“It was a wonderful opportunity for us to share the results of our dedicated teams’ work to ensure the safety of our patients.”

Defend Our NHS Chelmsford campaigners were picketing at the main entrance, at the end of Hospital Approach Road, from 11am.

Campaigners were protesting plans to merge Broomfield Hospital with Southend and Basildon.

Andrew Coburn is secretary of Chelmsford Trades Union Council, he was waiting outside the hospital hoping to get answers from Mr Hunt.

He said: “All the government are doing is slash, trash and privatise. The merger will facilitate that even more.

“Even if it doesn’t I’m extremely sceptical about the plans.

“I think it’s cheeky of Jeremy to deliberately avoid the people who want to have their opinions heard. He snuck in the back entrance to avoid any questions.”

Jeremy Hunt was appointed Secretary of State for Health and Social Care on January 8, 2018. He was previously appointed Secretary of State for Health in September 2012.

The Department of Health and Social Care have been contacted for comment.