Residents concerned about closures and the future of Maldon's St Peter's Hospital now have an extra two weeks to respond to a public consultation on the future locations of community-based health services in mid and south Essex.

NHS Mid and South Essex NHS Trust has extended the consultation until April 4, 2024, to allow more people to give their views on changes to local hospital provision, including services at St Peter's Hospital in Maldon.

The Trust says extending the consultation will allow decision-makers to gain more insight and feedback to the proposals, which have sparked a lot of controversy and involvement from regional MPs.

On Thursday (14 March) the matter will be debated in the House of Commons following intervention by Maldon MP Sir John Whittingdale.

 The Trust says the consultation will help it understand local views on the proposals, which include:

• potential changes to the places where we provide some community hospital intermediate care and stroke rehabilitation services, in particular services provided at the Cumberledge Intermediate Care Centre (CICC) in Rochford and Brentwood Community Hospital.
• making permanent the temporary move of the freestanding midwife-led birthing unit from St Peter's Hospital to, Maldon to the William Julien Courtauld Unit at St Michael's, Braintree.
• the possibility of moving all other patient services at St Peter's Hospital, Maldon to other locations, ideally in and around the Maldon district.

More than 2,500 people have already completed the online survey since the consultation launched on 25 January, and many others have fed back through a range of opportunities to get involved over the past seven weeks.

Ways people can get involved:

• Visiting a dedicated consultation webpage and completing a survey – paper copies are also available from local libraries
• Joining our public consultation hearing that we're holding in Maldon on March 19 2024 which will also be live-streamed on our YouTube page  @MSEssex_ICS
• Joining a session being run by a voluntary sector organisation. These sessions are for people that might find it difficult to attend one of the other public events, and/or for people that need extra support to understand the proposals and share their views.
• Talking to us through our social media channels.
• Emailing us at: [email protected]
• Phoning us at: 01268 594350
• Writing to us at: FAO: Community Capacity Consultation NHS Mid and South Essex ICB, PO Box 6483, Basildon, SS14 0UG

All responses and feedback will be analysed and reported by an independent organisation and a report published that considers the proposals. The ICB plans to consider the proposals in the context of all the feedback received from the public, organisations, and staff over the summer of 2024.