At Local MP Maria Miller’s regular Community Chat, held at Hatch Warren Community Centre, it was announced that the Public Consultation for the new Basingstoke Hospital will start before Christmas.
Maria said, “The plans for our new Hospital have achieved a key milestone with the announcement that the Public Consultation starts before Christmas. After securing £900million of ring-fenced Government funding for our new Hospital earlier this year, moving to a full Public Consultation before Christmas is an important next step. The residents who came along to my Community Chat on Saturday had the opportunity to raise important questions with senior NHS staff before the Consultation starts including the Hospital location, transport links, and how the new Hospital will work with exiting local NHS services.”
Maria invited to the Community Chat representatives from Hampshire Hospitals Foundation Trust and the Hampshire Integrated Care Board who gave important updates on the progress being made and answered many questions from the audience.
Maria went on to say, “Funding is now in place for enabling works to build the new Hospital including the cost of a Land Option Agreement between landowner and developer, Planning Application Requirements, A full Transport Assessment and the cost of a public consultation”.
Alex Whitfield, Chief Executive of Hampshire Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust said, “We have an amazing opportunity to invest in our services and our buildings in ways which will make a difference to our patients and colleagues for decades to come. Given the size of the programme, we want to make sure we do the very best we can with the opportunity we have been given. and that is why we are working with our stakeholders, communities, and the public. We are committed to working together as we move forwards towards a formal public consultation, seeking the views and thoughts of as many people as we can."
Caroline Morison, Chief Strategy and Transformation Officer at Hampshire and Isle of Wight Integrated Care Board, said: “We are incredibly excited about what a new hospital for Hampshire could achieve in delivering high quality healthcare for our communities. We have been working together with Hampshire Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust, patient representatives, NHS and local authority partners to make sure we make the very best of this opportunity and to develop options for future services that we will talk to our local communities about.”
Maria added, “We now need everyone involved to do all they can to speed up the delivery of our new Hospital. Currently the NHS says it will take 10 years to plan and build. I believe Basingstoke needs our new Hospital quicker than that. We have the funding. We have the site. We have the support of residents and our local authorities. I hope residents will take part in the Public Consultation to make it clear we need our new Hospital as soon as possible, to meet the needs of our growing and rapidly aging Basingstoke community”.
