The NHS in Hampshire has published details on proposals for a consultation into how between £700 million and £900 million would best be invested in hospital services across the county.
Announcing the proposals, Maggie MacIsaac, Chief Executive of NHS Hampshire and Isle of Wight Integrated Care Board, said: “This investment gives us a once-in-a-generation opportunity to improve hospital facilities and hospital services across Hampshire for decades to come.
"The money will help transform the care and treatment patients receive. The brand-new hospital at the Basingstoke hospital site or near junction 7 of the M3, and upgraded hospital buildings at Winchester, will enable our NHS to meet the changing needs of our growing and ageing population. It will help us to attract and retain the best staff, provide better and more consistent care, help people stay healthy for longer, and – crucially – provide safe, sustainable, high-quality services for the future.”
The proposals are subject to the agreement of Hampshire and Isle of Wight Integrated Care Board, with support from the Trust Board at Hampshire Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust. The consultation will begin early in December on three options which have been developed with a range of partners including patient representatives. The options cover the potential location of the new hospital and proposals for the services that each hospital could provide in the future. The NHS expects to open the doors to the new hospital early in the 2030s.
Option 1 proposes a new specialist acute hospital on the current Basingstoke hospital site, while options 2 and 3 propose a new hospital near to Junction 7 of the M3.
If option 2 or 3 was chosen, specialist acute hospital services would be delivered from the new hospital, while day-to-day hospital services such as outpatients, diagnostics, and therapy services, would still be delivered from the current Basingstoke hospital site, as well as from the new hospital and Winchester hospital.
In all three options, Winchester hospital would continue to provide 24/7 urgent treatment, a same day emergency care service, and midwife led maternity services.
The Member of Parliament for Winchester and Chandler's Ford, Steve Brine MP, said :"Hampshire is part of the ‘New Hospitals Programme’ which promises to modernise hospital buildings across England - and that’s welcome - especially for Basingstoke which badly needs the new hospital this is all about. But modernising services across a Trust will always come with hard choices about clinical priorities, what goes where and have impact elsewhere.
If the ICB decide to proceed to consultation with the proposals it will consider at its’ meeting on December 6, those choices will be right in front of us.
For more than fifteen years I’ve stuck my neck out for Winchester Hospital and the important services it provides my constituents. It’s been the place for so many life events for my family too including the birth of both our children.
My view hasn’t changed; Winchester is a fast growing city and I want to see A&E services maintained as they are today plus full consultant-led maternity services on the RHCH site. If the clinicians, who must ultimately decide, feel things can be changed in a way that provides safe and sustainable services for my constituents it’s up to them to make the clinical case.”
You can watch/listen to various interviews Steve did on local media via his Facebook page here.
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