RESIDENTS are urged to have their say on proposals to cut health services, including infertility treatment, to save money.

NHS Basildon and Brentwood Clinical Commissioning Group, which commissions health services, is facing a deficit of £14million.

In a bid to save money, it is looking at cutting the services it provides.

It is looking to withdraw funding to a range of services, including male and female sterilisation, NHS prescriptions of gluten-free food to over-18s except pregnant women, specialist fertility services, e-cigarettes and weight loss surgery.

The CCG says it is proposing not to fund e-cigarettes ahead of government plans to make them available on prescription from 2017 to smokers who want to quit.

A six-week consultation on the plans is running until Monday, September 12.

Dr Arv Guniyangodage, chairman of the CCG, said: “Since the consultation started, we have had hundreds of survey responses from people who have seen or heard about our proposals on TV and the radio, taken our information flyers at stations or met us at a supermarket.

“This is a consultation about a number of changes designed to ensure local healthcare services help as many people as possible.”

Full details of all the proposed changes can be found on the CCG’s website at basildonandbrentwoodccg.

nhs.uk/fit-for-the-future.

Consultation events for patients to give feedback on the plans will be held on Saturday, September 3 from 10am until 5pm at the ‘Love Your Borough’ event behind Costa, Basildon Town Square, and the CCG’s Annual General Meeting, on Thursday, September 8, from 4pm until 8pm at St George’s Suite, at Basildon Council, in St Martin’s Square