RESIDENTS of Maldon deserve a fully-functional health service, and that should include hospital beds.

With the seemingly never-ending saga over what will replace St Peter’s hospital, many will now be quite rightly tired of constant setbacks.

The fact that we now appear to have the district council, clinical commissioning group, GP surgeries and patient groups actively working together to design future facilities is very encouraging.

With a development as important as a new health hub and community centre, it’s critical that plans are scrutinised, appraised and agreed on by all the necessary parties.

One thing’s for sure, it should certainly have beds for patients. With St Peter’s overhauled the debate over hospital beds is an important one.

The NHS is already stretched to breaking point, we cannot rely on hospitals elsewhere to house all of our patients.

The debate over plans will surely go on for some time, but the need for quality care in Maldon is paramount and should not be neglected.