THE insistence of the minister on a new hospital being built at Junction seven, is a bit dictatorial. Ideally a new hospital should either be built next to the present hospital, or perhaps next to where the present Basing Clinic is, which would be convenient for specialists who work at both. The reason why it can not be built at either place is because too much housing has been ruthlessly squeezed in. Perhaps not impossible, but difficult?

READ MORE: Hospitals minister says land for Junction 7 hospital will be bought this year

The hospital was built there because of the Park Prewett mental hospital (originally called a lunatic asylum). Referring to the Hants & Berks Gazette of 1900, there was a choice of two farms for a lunatic asylum. Park Prewett or Winklebury Farm. Prewett was chosen. Winklebury Farm, which straddled the main railway line, might have been a bit too convenient. A railway halt at Winklebury for lunatics might not have gone down very well with the locals. A line was laid to Park Prewett, but it went from not the railway station, but the goods yard.

I understand that much of the Basingstoke hospital is leaking. Not maintained properly?

Paul FitzPatrick

Winklebury Way

Basingstoke

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