A NEW £150 million critical treatment hospital is set to be built in North Waltham, it was revealed on Monday.

The 24-hour consultant-led centre will be based at a greenfield site between Winchester and Basingstoke on the north side of the A30, near junction seven of the M3.

As previously reported, the site is expected to cost around £150 million to develop and will be built by Hampshire Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust (HHFT) alongside a £18.5 million cancer centre – of which £5 million will be fundraised.

It is one of two options considered following months of consultations. The second option, rejected by HHFT, was to build on the existing site of Basingstoke Hospital in Aldermaston Road.

Mary Edwards, chief executive of HHFT, said it was the best solution to provide for the population which will serve from Eastleigh to Newbury, Andover to Hook.

“We chose this site because it is the shortest possible ambulance time for our whole population,” she said.

“The site is very easily accessible and we worked in conjunction with ambulance crews, the CCG, and others to make sure this is the best possible site. Through that work it has been clear we are all agreed on a central location.”

The specialist emergency department is designed to deal with what Mrs Edwards called the “blue light scenario”, to treat patients with major trauma injuries, heart attacks, strokes and other emergencies.

Mrs Edwards said: “Only the most seriously injured patients will be treated at the critical treatment hospital.

“The general rule will be that patients will take themselves to the emergency departments at Basingstoke and Winchester, which will remain open, but patients will be taken by ambulance to the critical treatment hospital.”

Midwife-led maternity centres will still operate at Winchester, Basingstoke and Andover hospitals, she said, with the exception of high-risk mothers – many of whom are expected to choose to deliver at the new centre.

It is hoped the Trust’s 24-hour Labour Line - the first of its kind in the country – will help a great deal in an emergency situation which is manned by experienced midwives.

“Midwives are very clever and very capable,” she said.

“In the olden days one would call the labour ward. The difference is now a very experienced midwife is on the phone and they then advise on what to do and, for the very small number who don’t even notice they are in labour, they will put their hands up and get taken to the most appropriate place.

“There will not be women giving birth on the motorway. Women will have a full range of choices about where to give birth.”

Hampshire Chronicle:

Hampshire Hospitals chief executive Mary Edwards

Mrs Edwards added that staff for the new centre will be extracted from current services depending on their areas of expertise. Intensive Therapy Unit (ITU) nurses will be expected to relocate to the hospitals whereas consultants will rotate across the sites.

“It is quite important for us to remind people that 85 per cent of services will still be delivered in Basingstoke and Winchester so most patients will still go to their local hospital even in an emergency or planned operation,” she said. “They will still go to the nearest hospital such as Eastleigh, Andover or Alton.”

A pre-planning application will be submitted over the next couple of weeks to Basingstoke and Deane Borough Council, with a full planning application submitted in March, followed by a public consultation.

The tender for the work should be completed by next November, and Monitor will then be invited to approve the plans.

Building work is expected to start in 2016 to open in autumn 2018.

Mrs Edwards added that various areas of Basingstoke hospital and Winchester's Royal Hampshire County Hospital (RHCH) are expected to become redundant with the opening of the new hospital.

She said: “We have been speaking with Hampshire County Council about potential options for the site which could benefit the community, for example, elderly care facilities.

“There is a lot still to be decided, but this is a very exciting time for us.”

Winchester and Chandler’s Ford MP Steve Brine said: “This could be very exciting for us; a world class NHS facility with 24/7 consultant cover, something we don't have right now in Winchester and a modern district general hospital at the RHCH. Nobody in their right mind, listening to the strong clinical case being made, should dismiss the new hospital out of hand and I certainly do not because the NHS has to be about securing the very best outcomes for us when we are acutely unwell.

“There are many questions that remain, such as travel connections to the site and the implications for complex births, but we should also remember this facility is a long way from being realised as things stand today.”