More than 4,000 people have given their verdicts on plans for an overhaul of the way health care is delivered in Essex.

Despite many agreeing change is needed to stem funding and staffing gaps, many expressed concerns over finance, transport and the current shortage of GPs.

Analysis of a consultation on how GPs and Southend, Basildon and Broomfield hospitals provide their services and whether Orsett Hospital should close was published in a report this week.

The Mid and South Essex Strategic Transformation Partnership says the majority of those who took part in the consultation back the proposals to streamline services.

However, there were concerns over how representative the consultation was when just 7 per cent of 750 people telephoned for their views as part of the consultation had even heard of the Your Care in the Best Place consultation, despite concerted efforts by the partnership to inform the public.

Of those, 38 per cent had read about it in their local newspaper, and just 7 per cent from public meetings. Of the respondents, 73 per cent were residents and the largest number, 233, aged between 56 and 65. Only two GPs responded.

The report revealed increased services in the community would involve the recruitment of about 50 new GPs. Large primary care centres are proposed to provide more services. They will have a range of healthcare professionals, including mental health teams, at their disposal. It is hoped this will ultimately mean fewer hospital admissions. This was welcomed in the consultation, with people in favour of “more tests, scans and treatments locally rather than having to visit hospital”.

However, the report said people were worried “there would not be enough financial resources to deliver this plan”, and “finding sufficient motivated and well-trained staff to provide all the planned community services would be extremely challenging”. A large number of respondents said they already had problems accessing their GPs and the proposed changes were likely to add to GP pressures.

Changes to the way our hospitals currently work are also far reaching and aimed at providing specialist services at specific hospitals.

The consultation asked, in separate questions, if people were in favour of a cardiac centre, respiratory centre and specialist stroke unit at Basildon and emergency surgery centre at Broomfield .

The majority of respondents replied it “seemed sensible” to each question but subsequent “suggestions” from them revealed a large number of concerns. These key issues include how patients will be transferred to specialist centres on heavily congested roads, possibly to the detriment of patients, particularly those who had suffered strokes, and where the cash is coming from to fund the changes.

The future of Southend Hospital is also of concern. Under the proposals it will only be responsible for emergency gynaecology surgery and non-urgent elective surgery. NHS bosses say this separation of planned and emergency surgery would result in fewer cancellations – a plan with which 36 per cent of respondents strongly agreed and 39 per cent agreed. However, the report said concerns included the “potential de-skilling of surgical teams” who did not work on emergency surgery.

The consultation proposes moving services currently provided from the Orsett Hospital site into centres closer to where people live, enabling the closure of Orsett Hospital.

Following the publication of the report, a partnership spokesperson said: “The analysis identifies some local differences, particularly around the proposals relating to the future of Orsett Hospital from those living in the Thurrock Clinical Commissioning Group area and less general agreement with the proposals from those living in the Southend Clinical Commissioning Group area.”

Professor Mike Bewick, independent chair of the joint committee of the five clinical commissioning groups in mid and south Essex, said: “The primary aim of consultation is not to undertake a referendum but to gain better understanding of any potential impact proposed changes may have. The outcome of the public consultation is an important factor in decision making which needs to be fully taken into account.”