Hospitals Minister Nick Markham and NHS New Hospitals Programme Director Natalie Forrest met Basingstoke residents, County Councillors and Borough Councillors to update them on the extensive progress that is being made to ensure the doors of the new Hospital at Junction 7 of the M3 will open by 2032.
Local MP Maria Miller chaired the meeting and said afterwards, “The meeting this evening demonstrated that residents overwhelmingly support the new Hospital and we have heard from the Minister that the New Hospital Programme has the full support of all political parties. I hope the small number of people who have tried to make this a party-political issue will now get behind the new hospital so we can get it built. The Minister has been clear, the more support our Hospital Trust gets, particularly from Basingstoke and Deane Council, the more opportunity we have to open the doors of the hospital before 2032. Having had his questions answered about funding, Council Leader Paul Harvey must get behind our new Hospital and ensure planning consent is granted so we can make the case to Government for the hospital to open sooner.”
The Minister answered a range of questions from a large audience of residents for more than 40 minutes after a short presentation updating Basingstoke residents on the new approach the Government is taking to the design and build of NHS Hospitals under the Hospital 2.0 programme of which Basingstoke is part.
The Minister confirmed the action to be taken next by the Trust in the lead up to 2032: the public consultation which just closed will have findings published in the next couple of months, and to prepare for that, plans are underway to acquire a site at J7 of the M3 this year. To fund this preparatory work £9million has already been released to HHFT to prepare final plans and designs.
Following an announcement that Liberal Democrats, who currently in coalition running Basingstoke Council, would remove the new Hospital from Basingstoke and build it in Winchester the Minister confirmed there were no land options suitable in Winchester and that is why none were included in the public consultation. He went on to say the New Hospitals Programme is planning on a J7 site and the plan is to acquire the site this year.
There were a series of very detailed questions from a representative of the Liberal Democrat/Independent Party/Green Party/Women’s Equality Party which includes council candidates seeking election in May and sitting Councillors, who have campaigned saying the hospital isn’t properly funded by Government. The Minister in reply detailed that funding is in place and outlined the process followed by the NHS and Government. NHS Programme Director Ms Forrest agreed and pointed out that she had delayed the Public Consultation for Basingstoke’s new Hospital until the Treasury confirmed to the NHS that funding was in place. The Minister went on to say, “We wouldn’t be spending millions of pounds on plans and tens of millions on land if the money wasn’t there and if this wasn’t real”.
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