A DERMATOLOGY service will be returning to a Colchester hospital for the first time in four years.

The North East Essex Clinical Commissioning Group has appointed East Suffolk and North Essex Foundation Trust, which runs Colchester Hospital, to provide an integrated dermatology service.

The contract will run for five years and nine months, starting from July 4. A spokesman for the commissioers said services on offer will range from self-care to complex care in a hospital-based setting.

The decision comes after engagement with the public who told the commissioners what was important to them, what they felt worked well for them and what could be improved.

Pam Green, director of transformation and strategy at the North East Essex Clinical Commissiong Group, said: “At a time of growing demand for healthcare services it is important we commission services that deliver improved outcomes and the best possible experience for patients, and also we help to support people to self-care and to be prevented from developing skin disease wherever we can.

“This service aims to deliver all of these important aspects of care.”

Since Colchester and Ipswich hospitals merged last year, questions have been raised over whether some services will move.

However, the hospital trust has said no services have been moved yet.

Neill Moloney, managing director of the hospital trust, said: “We promised we would not make any changes to services unless they were better for patients when we became a new organisation in July 2018. We have not moved any services from either hospital.

“Our clinical specialists have always referred to other colleagues outside their own organisation so the people we care for receive the right care, from the right clinician and at the right time.”