ESSEX County Hospital will close for good next summer once a multi-million pound investment at Colchester's walk-in centre is complete.

In March, Essex County Council reached an agreement with the trust to assess the suitability of the county hospital site for redevelopment.

The hospital site had previously been earmarked for housing but a decision on the fate of the site is yet to be made.

A spokesman said the council are expected to release an update on plans for the site by the start of December.

The £6.4million development to replace the facilities on offer at the County Hospital is underway and will see all of Colchester's acute hospital services on the same site for the first time.

Facilities which are still offered at the hospital in Lexden Road will move to two vacant floors at the Primary Care Centre which is next-door to Colchester Hospital.

Eye services, including two operating theatres, as well as ear, nose and throat aid will all be re-located from the county hospital which is almost 200-years-old.

Nick Hulme, the chief executive of Colchester Hospital University NHS Foundation Trust, said the new centre would be a huge upgrade.

He said: "Essex County Hospital is a much-loved facility that has served the population of Colchester and the surrounding area with distinction for almost two centuries.

"However, the site has been developed in a piecemeal way over the years and is a hotch-potch of buildings, both old and new, whereas the Primary Care Centre is a far superior setting from which to provide modern health care under one roof.

"Being next to Colchester General Hospital, it is part of a health campus which is far more efficient than having separate sites two miles apart."