{"id":4566,"date":"2025-07-18T10:13:05","date_gmt":"2025-07-18T10:13:05","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.johnwhittingdale.org.uk\/?p=4566"},"modified":"2026-02-17T22:10:48","modified_gmt":"2026-02-17T22:10:48","slug":"sir-john-whittingdale-mp-welcomes-decision-to-maintain-out-patient-services-at-st-peters-hospital","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.johnwhittingdale.org.uk\/?p=4566","title":{"rendered":"St Peter\u2019s Hospital decision"},"content":{"rendered":"\t\t<div data-elementor-type=\"wp-post\" data-elementor-id=\"4566\" class=\"elementor elementor-4566\" data-elementor-post-type=\"post\">\n\t\t\t\t<div class=\"elementor-element elementor-element-38214b5c e-flex e-con-boxed e-con e-parent\" data-id=\"38214b5c\" data-element_type=\"container\" data-e-type=\"container\">\n\t\t\t\t\t<div class=\"e-con-inner\">\n\t\t\t\t<div class=\"elementor-element elementor-element-203419bb elementor-widget elementor-widget-text-editor\" data-id=\"203419bb\" data-element_type=\"widget\" data-e-type=\"widget\" data-widget_type=\"text-editor.default\">\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\n<p>I welcome the decision of the NHS Mid and South Essex ICB to maintain out patient services at St Peter\u2019s Hospital for up to five years while progressing plans for a new health hub. This is a clear recognition that Maldon needs its own community health facilities, as was recommended by the Community Consultation Working Group and the consultation that I conducted including by organising a public meeting in Maldon attended by over 400 people. I will now continue to work with the ICB and other groups to identify the funding package needed for a permanent new health facility on the St Peter\u2019s site.<\/p>\n\n<p>While pre- and post-natal services will continue to be available at St Peter\u2019s, I am disappointed that it has been confirmed that the birthing unit will be moved to Braintree. This will mean that mothers from the furthest areas in the Dengie Peninsula face a journey of up to an hour to get to Broomfield or Braintree to give birth. As the population served by St Peter\u2019s continues to grow, I hope that this decision can be looked at again when it comes to plans for the new facility as can the provision of beds for intermediate care and stroke rehabilitation.<\/p>\n\n<p>I am delighted that as a result of the combined voices of so many in the local community, we have succeeded in reversing the original decision to close the hospital. There is now a lot of work to do to address the defects in the existing building and to organise funding for a new one. However, I am confident that working with the NHS, the local authorities and the private sector this can be achieved.<\/p>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Welcomes retention of services at St Peter\u2019s Hospital and progress toward a new health hub, while urging review of maternity changes and long-term local healthcare provision.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":3415,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"elementor_header_footer","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[11],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-4566","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-local-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.johnwhittingdale.org.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4566","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.johnwhittingdale.org.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.johnwhittingdale.org.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.johnwhittingdale.org.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.johnwhittingdale.org.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=4566"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/www.johnwhittingdale.org.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4566\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":5329,"href":"https:\/\/www.johnwhittingdale.org.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4566\/revisions\/5329"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.johnwhittingdale.org.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/3415"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.johnwhittingdale.org.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=4566"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.johnwhittingdale.org.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=4566"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.johnwhittingdale.org.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=4566"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}