A plan to transport patients between specialist hospitals has come under fire from campaigners.

The Mid and South Essex Sustainability and Transformation Partnership (STP) is proposing a number of specialist centres based at Southend, Basildon and Broomfield hospitals.

This includes a hyper acute stroke unit and specialist emergency centre at Basildon hospital.

Members of the public raised concerns about how the patients would be transported between the hospitals at a public consultation held last week.

But many of their worries went unanswered due to no ambulance representatives there.

A spokesman for the Save Southend NHS Campaign group said: “Senior managers who presented the plans were repeatedly asked to explain how their grand scheme could be delivered given a stunning lack of detail in their proposals.

“One member of the public asked if a study of the traffic issues involved in transport across busy roads including the A13, A127 and A130 had been undertaken. Ronan Fenton, speaking for the STP claimed that it had, but could not explain what it said or why he had not presented it to the meeting.”

“The problem of being able to transport seriously ill people across the area is clearly a critical issue. If an appropriate transport service is not delivered then patients will quite simply be at risk and the overall STP plan may fail.”

Dr Fenton said: “All of the feedback we receive during the consultation will of course be considered before any decision is made and we do not underestimate the potential impact on those patients who may be affected by these proposed changes.”

When asked by the Echo, the ambulance service could not comment.