Winchester A&E to close under Hampshire hospitals restructuring

The restructuring will affect the Royal Hampshire County Hospital and Basingstoke & North Hampshire Hospital

The accident and emergency department in Winchester is set to be closed as part of a restructure of hospital provision in Hampshire.

Under plans announced, a new acute specialist hospital would be built in north Hampshire, costing up to £900m.

The Royal Hampshire County Hospital in Winchester would be refurbished and a new "urgent treatment centre" opened.

Hampshire Hospitals Trust said the changes would create "21st Century healthcare".

The new hospital - funded by the government's New Hospital Building programme - would be built either on the site of the current Basingstoke hospital or at a new site at Dummer, off the M3's Junction 7.

The new hospital would be the acute specialist hospital with an emergency department, trauma unit and specialist children's accident and emergency.

Specialist consultants in heart and strokes would also be based there.

There would be an obstetrician-led maternity unit for complex births and a neo-natal unit, as well as a cancer unit.

The Royal Hampshire County Hospital in Winchester would be the centre for planned operations, with a doctor and nurse-led urgent treatment centre (UTC), open 24/7, as part of a refurbishment of the site.

A midwife-led birthing centre would also be created.

Its existing accident and emergency department would close under the plans.

The trust added the majority of residents in Winchester would still be able to go to Winchester UTC as they would now when visiting A&E. Only those who were acutely ill would go to the new specialist acute hospital.

The model is similar the one adopted by University Hospitals Dorset. The Royal Bournemouth is undergoing building work to become the acute hospital and Poole General will soon be the centre for planned operations.

The trust said the change was needed to reflect a 60% increase in the catchment area population of Basingstoke hospital since it opened in 1974, along with an aging population.

The new hospital in Basingstoke would have more single rooms, while the plan would improve care in Winchester by preventing operations being cancelled last minute because staff, theatres or beds being needed for emergencies.

Chief executive Alex Whitfield said health authorities had to "respond to the change in our population".

"Our buildings were once beautiful but now we are spending precious funds patching up roofs, sorting lifts which break down, fixing sewer pipes," she said.

"We need a hospital now for 21st Century healthcare"

A public consultation will see three options on offer:

• A new hospital is built on the existing site of the current Basingstoke hospital

• A new hospital is built on a new site at junction 7 of the M3

• A new hospital is on the M3, but there remains a hospital on the original Basingstoke site for some appointments and step down beds, for people who don't need quite the high level of care in an acute hospital

The trust said the second option was its preferred outcome but insisted it would listen to people's comments.

Winchester's A&E department will remain open until the refurbishment is complete with the new hospital expected to open in 2032.