I would like to comment on the article in the Standard (July 2) regarding the local Lib Dems’ proposed petition for the replacement of St Peter’s Hospital by a “comprehensive health facility”.

St Peter’s Hospital was originally built as a workhouse for the destitute of Maldon and district.

It offers excellent clinics (eye clinic, dietary clinics, childrens’ clinics and various others too) plus an excellent maternity unit where my four children were all born and wards for the elderly, and of course the provision for blood testing.

Yes it needs updating and bringing into the 21st century. but what we don’t need is a health hub which doesn’t provide ALL the facilities that St Peter’s Hospital now offers, including the much-needed maternity unit.

With all the thousands of houses being built in Maldon and the surrounding district it is imperative that we keep this hospital where it is and upgrade it for the future.

Maureen Patient-Saunders

Wordsworth Avenue, Maldon