Extra pressure is to be put on the Government to upgrade facilities at Tendring's community hospitals.
Earlier this year, the Evening Gazette launched a campaign to change the face of healthcare in the district and provide new facilities at Clacton Hospital.
More than 9,000 signed a petition which was handed to Health Secretary John Reid, the Essex Strategic Health Authority and Tendring Primary Care Trust.
One of the demands of the Clacton Hospital - Let's Make It Better campaign was a new hospital for the town.
Now Harwich MP Douglas Carswell has become patron for Chant - Community Hospitals Acting Nationally Together - and he is confident the group can exert more influence in the effort improve local healthcare.
"I am certainly hopeful that by working with Chant we can upgrade facilities at both Clacton and Harwich," he said.
"This is a cross-party campaign group set up to lobby ministers and raise awareness of the nationwide threat to local community hospitals such as ours."
Mr Carswell added that Tendring Primary Care Trust faces deficits and financial problems because money that should be going to patients was being diverted elsewhere.
More in today's Evening Gazette
Published Friday, November 25, 2005
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