Two options for the future of north and mid Hampshire's hospital services have been discounted.

Six options remain under consideration by health bosses, which include building a new hospital site somewhere in the county.

Hampshire Together: Modernising our Hospitals and Health Services, which includes members from the hospital trust, clinical commissioning groups, county council, ambulance service, district councils, the Local Enterprise Partnership and the University of Winchester, is currently working on revamping the region's hospital services, in order to meet the population's changing health needs.

It is part of government funding to health services in the area.

Now, the partnership have thrown out two of their eight proposals - to carry on as normal and to migrate all hospital services to a new site.

It leaves six that will be considered further, five of which are various configurations involving a brand new hospital and a main satellite facility, with additional facilities offering some services.

Managers have been exploring the possibility of centralising some of the most specialist services for the sickest people on one site, rather than spread across two main sites, in Winchester and Basingstoke.

They say that consolidating those specialist services in one place would mean a better use of senior clinicians, who are currently spread too thinly. It would also mean clinical teams treat more patients with particular conditions and illnesses, helping to better maintain their expertise.

The sixth will not see a new hospital, but services reconfigured in the current premises.

Work is also ongoing to identify locations for the services. It is not currently known whether any of the Trust's existing sites will close under the plans.

The eight options were then considered by doctors, nurses, and other clinicians and evaluated against pre-agreed criteria to decide whether they should be discounted or taken forward and investigated further.

The six remaining proposals include:

  • Essential Service Reconfiguration - investment to hospital services in Basingstoke and Winchester for long-term use, with some centralisation to ensure quality.
  • New hospital and satellite (1) - new hospital built for emergency, consultant-led maternity, intensive and outpatient care, plus a planned surgery centre in a main satellite hospital. Other services such as outpatients will also be provided at additional satellite locations.
  • New hospital and satellite (2) - new hospital built for planned surgery plus emergency, consultant-led maternity, intensive and outpatient care. Other services such as outpatients will also be provided at additional satellite locations.
  • New hospital and satellite (3) - new hospital built for planned surgery plus emergency, consultant-led maternity, intensive and outpatient care. An outpatient centre will be provided from a main satellite hospital, plus other consultations and services will be provided from additional satellite locations.
  • New hospital and satellite (4) - new hospital built for emergency, consultant-led maternity, intensive and outpatient care. A centre for planned surgery and outpatient appointments will be provided from a main satellite hospital, whilst other services such as outpatients will also be provided at additional satellite locations.
  • New hospital and satellite (5) - new hospital built for emergency, consultant-led maternity and intensive care, plus a planned surgery centre. An outpatient centre will be provided from a main satellite hospital, whilst other services such as outpatients will also be provided at additional satellite locations.

Dr Matt Nisbet, a local GP and a clinical lead at the Hampshire and Isle of Wight Partnership of CCGs, said today: “We would like to thank everybody who has taken part in our listening exercise during the summer as well as those who have taken part in our recent options development sessions.

“The six options for the way we organise clinical services in north and mid Hampshire in the future will now be investigated further. Our evaluation criteria for shortlisting will be further developed, building on what respondents said was important to them during our listening exercise. The criteria will be refined with further input from clinicians, staff, patients, and other stakeholders.

“This work will allow doctors, nurses and other clinicians, with the help of a specially formed options development group including staff and patient representatives, to use the evaluation criteria to draw up a shortlist recommended for public consultation. The CCG governing body will review a detailed business case and make a decision on the options for consultation. We expect to launch this consultation early in the new year.”