ANSWERS are being demanded of health chiefs after plans for a new £150 million hospital near Winchester were halted due to a lack of money in the NHS.

Proposals to build a centralised emergency unit by junction 7 of the M3 were thrown into serious doubt when funding boards revealed a £60 million "affordability gap".

Divides have emerged between Hampshire Hospitals trust and the clinical commissioning groups (CCGs) which fund it over how much money can be spent on critical care at a time when cash-strapped NHS bosses want to prioritise community services.

The critical treatment unit, a cornerstone of the trust's healthcare vision yet to be scrapped entirely, would treat the 15 per cent of sickest patients with 24-hour consultant care and include an £18.5 million cancer unit to centralise chemotherapy.

Trust chairman Elizabeth Padmore defended the scheme at a meeting in Basingstoke last week, telling directors it "fits perfectly" with NHS plans.

But North Hampshire CCG raised concerns that the trust only consulted on their preferred project.

Anne Phillips, who sits on the governing body, said health funding is "very fast-moving".

However, she said: "If we could look back we would say that we would like to have been able to come to this decision sooner. Unfortunately some of the processes that the NHS goes through can be a little bit long-winded."

Ms Phillips added: "We don't feel, the CCGs, that the public were engaged with delivering a whole series of options.

"We're not talking about less money [being available] for the 15 per cent – we're talking about less money for the 100 per cent, so we're talking about putting more into community care."

In a letter to stakeholders, the West and North Hampshire CCGs have recommended a comprehensive revamp including acute, community, mental health, primary and social care.

They said it was "still possible" the proposed hospital "might emerge" as part of that redesign.

Steve Brine MP, health secretary Jeremy Hunt's right-hand man in parliament, said: "A whole system approach that is able to fully combine hospital with social care must be right because it's increasingly clear across the NHS that the success of one is heavily reliant on the other. I don't think grandstanding on this issue is going to help anyone."

Winchester councillor Martin Tod, who sits on a county council committee scrutinising the plans, said: "The bit I've always asked about and where they've never really had answers is the finances. That's the bit where they've always said 'it's very difficult – we'll come back to you.'"

He estimated hundreds of thousands of pounds have been spent already. The trust said it was unable to provide costs of the scheme to date.

Mary Edwards, chief executive of Hampshire Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust, said it was "disappointed" the consultation is not going ahead.

West Hampshire CCG declined to comment ahead of a board meeting today.