Save Southend NHS campaigners have warned that they believe the south and mid Essex hospital merger could mean longer ambulance waiting times for people living on Canvey.

Standing outside the Specsavers on on Furtherwick Road on Canvey were several campaigners from the Save Southend NHS group, who were asking passers-by to sign a petition to stop services moving out of Southend Hospital to Basildon and Broomfield.

The group say that there are "no credible plans for how the ambulances or specialist staff needed would be provided."

Labour representative for Castle Point and campaigner, Kieran Smith, said: "This looks good on paper and it will be good if they can get the additional money and invest it in the NHS. 

"But - and there is a massive but - they are making cuts to Southend Hospital and they are struggling to fill the ambulance posts.

"If there's a traffic jam, it take two to three hours for ambulances to get to the island because we only have two roads. Ambulances will struggle to get on and off the island."

The campaigners are against the South and Mid-Essex Sustainability and Transformation Partnership, which is a joint committee of Clinical Commissioning Groups in the south and middle of the county.

The group is also asking Rebecca Harris to sign the petition.

A spokesman for the East of England Ambulance Service Trust said: “Patients are taken to the hospital most appropriate for the care needed for them, so it's completely dependent on the condition of the individual patient.

"The clinicians’ expertise and the resources available to them on a vehicle allows the patient to receive quality care en route.

“Our response to patients needing help in communities is about making sure the best, high quality, most appropriate response is provided for each patient first time.”