RESIDENTS all over the Felixstowe area are today being asked to give their views on the future of the resort's health services.And tonight the Evening Star is teaming up with the Suffolk Coastal Primary Care Trust to help readers take part and make sure their voices are heard.

RESIDENTS all over the Felixstowe area are today being asked to give their views on the future of the resort's health services.

And tonight the Evening Star is teaming up with the Suffolk Coastal Primary Care Trust to help readers take part and make sure their voices are heard.

Printed on this page is a form on which people can give their opinions, cut it out and send it off to the PCT.

We are also helping to promote two special consultation meetings which people can attend to talk to health officials and give their views.

The public meetings will take place at the Hotel Elizabeth Orwell, Hamilton Road, Felixstowe, at 7pm on May 17, and 10am on May 25.

The aim of the consultation is to draw up a plan to improve health services at the resort and ensure its community hospitals are used to their full potential.

PCT officials say they have a "blank canvas" and simply want to hear realistically what health services people want.

Only when they get answers and finalise the plan will they look at possible effects on budgets.

But the vision is to provide future services which are at the forefront of modern day healthcare with care in the right place at the right time, building on the services already in the town and providing the greatest benefit to patients.

"The first thing to say is that the future of the two hospitals in Felixstowe is safe, with no loss of beds for local people or jobs," explained Ana Selby, PCT chief executive.

"We do need to review how best to make use of all the available health care resources and we want to know what local people think and would like to happen."

Tony Robinson, chairman of trust, said: "We need to build on the good things that are already in place in the PCT, such as new local GP surgeries, and the minor injuries units, and new ways of working like the proposed Saxmundham one-stop shop and family centre, which is at the forefront of contemporary care and design.

"And delivery of more care closer to home such as chemotherapy in GP practices.

"Although we care for more people every year, with a high and increasing proportion of older people, our hospitals are largely unchanged since they were built more than 80 years ago.

"We need to modernise them if we are to meet the higher standards expected in the NHS today, such as safer moving and handling, and more privacy and dignity."

WEBLINK: www.suffolkcoastal-pct.nhs.uk