'Once in a generation' opportunity to improve NHS care in Hampshire as up to £900m to be invested
WATCH ITV News Meridian's Sally Simmonds reporting from Hampshire.
Basingstoke is to get a new hospital and a new surgical centre is being planned for Winchester.
Today (30 November), more details were announced about the investment of up to £900 million in the NHS across Hampshire.
It has been hailed as a once-in-a-generation opportunity to improve care across the county.
It means services will be centralised with many medics saying that will be better, and that change has to happen.
Watch Dr Nick Ward (Interim Chief Medical Officer at Hampshire Hospitals) speaking to ITV News Meridian.
The plan is to divide facilities with fundamentally - emergency and complex care in Basingstoke, and planned surgery in Winchester.
One of the options involves a new hospital on the Basingstoke site, other options would involve building a new specialist acute hospital just off junction 7 of the M3.
Patients and NHS staff in Winchester, however, are worried about moving services 20 miles away.
A petition to keep the Emergency Department at Winchester has already had around 15,000 signatures, with residents voicing concerns about the danger to life, the distance and how patients and visitors will be able to travel to Basingstoke.
Doctors say that to provide outstanding care they to change the current system of care. the consultation process begins next week and will continue until March.
It will consider public opinion and the thoughts of clinicians and those in charge of funding NHS services.
Winchester Hospital opened its doors on Romsey Road in the 1860s, while Basingstoke's was built in the 1970s.
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Caroline Morrison from Hampshire and IOW Integrated Care Board said: "Most people accessing day-to-day services, at the hospitals will continue where they do, but it also gives us the opportunity to ensure our residents have access to specialist care when they need it.
"So if someone is poorly and needs to go in an ambulance they will have access to the best care when they need it."
Interim Chief Medical Officer at Hampshire Hospitals, Dr Nick Ward said: "At the moment our acute services are split between two sites.
"So what's required when you get to the hospital is expertise, the right equipment, and the right time to deal with those emergency situations.
"Those are the situations where we find it difficult to fully staff both Basingstoke and Winchester."