AN MP has blamed a managerial merry-go-round at Colchester Hospital for it's failure to come out of special measures.

Witham MP Priti Patel, whose constituency takes in Stanway, also says she is seeking assurances over services remaining at the Turner Road hospital and wants Ipswich bosses to back Colchester's bid to become the county's urology surgery centre of excellence.

The Conservative said: "Patients and hardworking frontline staff want to see the hospital improve and an end to this merry-go-round of management and board changes.

"We've been here before with management changes but this new partnership must focus on putting patients first and the delivery of high quality patient services."

She added: "Clear, transparent and robust improvement plans must be put in place and the services that patients value and use must remain.

"Ipswich must also get fully behind Colchester's bid to be the specialist provider of urology services in Essex."

Colchester MP Will Quince agreed with his colleague, stating the number of people who have held 'interim' posts at the hospital has "led to uncertainty and has had a negative impact".

He added: "What is a concern for me is, to the best of my knowledge, there is nobody in Colchester Hospital who has got a hospital and taken it out of special measures - no one has steered a hospital.

"It was only a few years ago in Ipswich that it came out of its own problems, so they will understand they scale of the challenge."