WHEN someone like Coun Pat Merrick, who has spent much of the past 25 years, as a councillor and chairman of the hospital league of friends, trying to get a new hospital built in Malvern says that now is "our last chance" you have to sit up and take notice.

As MP Sir Michael Spicer says in his letter on this page, we have been rather dismissive of the consultation process currently being undertaken by South Worcestershire Primary Care Trust.

The recent history of this ill-starred project makes you doubt of ever seeing a new hospital until they actually start digging the foundations.

Malvern Town Council may well be right in saying that the best way to persuade the PCT to finally build the oft-promised new hospital is for as many people as possible to fill in the consultation documents and demand one.

It is also right to encourage people to say that this new hospital should be on the site at Seaford Court.

In all likelihood Malvern is not going to get a hospital of the size it needs now, let alone for the future as the town continues to expand.

Thus it is important that there should be room on the site to expand in the future. This is more likely at Seaford Court than at the Pickersleigh depot.

While we remain unconvinced about the extent to which people's views will be taken on board as a result of this consultation, the town council must be right that the more people who fill in the questionnaires and attend the public meetings the better, in order to show Malvern's determination to have a new hospital.

This may well be our last chance.