The future of St Peter's Hospital in Maldon will be announced in July. Recommendations will be presented to NHS Mid and South Essex ICB at 1pm on July 17 as part of a decision-making business case that has been developed since early 2024.

This meeting will decide which services will remain at the site, if any.

The Mid and South Essex Hospital NHS Trust will decide the future of the building itself.

The final recommendation will be based on the original pre-consultation business case, public feedback from consultations, recommendations from medical experts, financial impact assessments, and community working group recommendations.

Many of the Maldon hospital's services have already been relocated, but plans last year to close the hospital completely were met with significant local opposition.

The Mid and South Essex integrated care board (ICB) will meet to decide finally which services, if any, will operate from the ageing campus, based on recommendations currently still being compiled by a programme board made up significantly of managers and clinicians.

In earlier recommendations, health care bosses proposed closing St Peter's Hospital in the town and relocating stroke hospital beds and maternity services to other sites in Essex.

It included recommendations that outpatient services be moved to a number of locations across Maldon and the surrounding areas.

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The community working group, led by Chairman James Halden, made several recommendations, which were made public last month.

One recommendation was to invest in keeping St Peter's Hospital operational for approximately five years while capital funding is assembled for a purpose-built new facility, ideally on part of the current site.

He also said NHS bosses should preserve the approximately 14,000 pre- and post-natal appointments that currently take place at St Peter's each year while maintaining midwife-led births at Braintree Community Hospital.