PLANS for a state-of-the-art new critical treatment hospital are vital to keep a Basingstoke-based trust financially afloat.

Speaking about the creation of the hospital at the annual general meeting of Hampshire Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust (HHFT), chief executive Mary Edwards told staff, governors and stakeholders: “If we do nothing, we go broke. If we do this, we survive.”

The meeting heard that the total cost of delivering the hospital is expected to be £150million, which includes £120m to build it.

However, Andrew Bishop, medical director of the trust, said that the income generated by the creation of the new hospital would benefit HHFT to the tune of around £12m every year.

The meeting heard that the trust – which runs hospitals in Basingstoke, Andover and Winchester – has battled hard to balance its books in the last financial year, and that it faces further financial challenges.

Mrs Edwards said: “We have the same amount of money, but it has to go further and further.

“Hospitals are facing the same problems all over the country – it is no secret.”

As previously reported in The Gazette, the critical treatment hospital will treat the sickest 15 per cent of patients in the trust catchment area, such as patients suffering from strokes or heart attacks or those who have been in serious accidents.

The preferred site of the new hospital is on land between the M3, A303 and A34. A second, less popular option is to build on the existing Basingstoke hospital site.

Dr Bishop set out a timetable for the construction of the hospital at the meeting. A loan application should be made in October, with a public consultation beginning shortly afterwards.

A planning application will hopefully be lodged in spring 2015, with a financial review taking place at the end of next year.

If everything goes according to plan, it is anticipated that construction will begin in the middle of 2016 and will be complete in autumn 2018.