We have pulled together a selection of Frequently Asked Questions about the Hampshire Together programme.
If you have a question that is not answered below, please email hsiccg.hampshiretogether@nhs.net and let us know!
Hampshire Together is a programme that has the potential to deliver a new hospital to serve the people of Hampshire, as well as many other healthcare benefits, as part of the government’s Health Infrastructure Plan to modernise NHS hospitals.
All NHS and social care organisations across the area are determined to make the most of this opportunity as we strive to support patients, their families and their carers to access the right care, in the right place, at the right time in order to keep them healthy.
A new hospital supports this ambition, but our ideas go beyond it. We are also thinking about ways in which we can change health services across the area to make them work better, both for our patients and our hard-working staff.
Hampshire Together is a partnership between a wide range of bodies who share the common characteristic that they care about the health and wellbeing of the people of north and mid Hampshire.
The key partners are:
- Hampshire Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust, which provides acute hospital services at Andover War Memorial Hospital, Basingstoke and North Hampshire Hospital and Royal Hampshire County Hospital, as well as some services either at or close to patients’ homes.
- The Hampshire, Southampton and Isle of Wight Partnership of Clinical Commissioning Groups, who are responsible for planning and commissioning NHS services across north and mid Hampshire. This involves assessing local needs, deciding priorities and strategies, and then buying services on behalf of the population from providers.
- Southern Health NHS Foundation Trust and Solent NHS Trust, who provide community and mental health services for the population of north and mid Hampshire.
- The 10 Primary Care Networks and GP practices who provide primary care services to our population.
- Hampshire County Council, who are responsible for a wide range of services across the county, including adult and children’s social care services and transport. They are also a key partner through the Health and Wellbeing Board, and their Health and Adult Care Select Committee.
- South Central Ambulance Service, who not only provide ambulance services, but run the 111 provision and co-ordinate urgent care for the county.
- The borough and district councils, including Basingstoke and Deane Borough Council, Winchester City Council, Test Valley Borough Council, Eastleigh District Council, Hart District Council and East Hampshire District Council. They take a lead on their local populations and are the planning authorities in our area.
- Parish and Town councils across the county, who often speak for their populations and can help shape the programme to ensure it meets the needs of our people.
- The voluntary and community sector organisations that do such an amazing role in supporting our population.
- The University of Winchester and other educational providers in the area.
- The Local Enterprise Partnership.
Our aim is for any new acute hospital to be designed in such a way that it could accommodate partners in mental health, primary health, social care and more in a ‘health campus’.
The NHS is ever-changing – and so are the challenges we face. At present there are four main issues which need to be tackled by this programme.
- Our changing population
- Clinical sustainability
- The condition of the buildings operated by Hampshire Hospitals
- Financial resilience
More information about these challenges can be found on the Our challenges page of this website.
In short, there are two decisions to be made:
- How do we need to change the way acute clinical services are provided?
- How are we going to deliver these services?
The first decision will be made jointly by the Hampshire, Southampton and Isle of Wight Partnership of CCGs and Hampshire Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust.
The second decision will be made by Hampshire Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust.
Clearly neither of these decisions will be made in isolation - and the decisions made will be informed by public engagement and public consultation.
NHS England and NHS Improvement will decide whether to approve the business case and without their support the programme cannot progress.
Without approval from planning authorities and other parties, a new building cannot be built.
There are many parties involved in this programme, which is why it is so important that we ensure we are aware of all the ideas, concerns and opportunities from the start.
Nothing, including the location of and services provided in any future hospital, has yet been decided – and we want to hear your views!
In the summer of 2020, we carried out a programme of engagement with the public, our staff and stakeholders to gather views on the project. This feedback was pulled together into an engagement report and is directly affecting our thinking as we develop options for a way forward.
More information about the programme can be found on this site and in the listening document that we created to set out the challenges, opportunities and decisions involved in Hampshire Together.
Formal public consultation on a number of proposals will take place at the earliest opportunity. This may include a preferred way forward which we think is the best of them.
After this process has been concluded and fully assessed we will announce our decision as soon as possible.
We hope to begin work to construct the new hospital in 2024, with the aim of opening by 2030.
Following a comprehensive site selection process, two locations have been shortlisted as possible sites for a potential new centralised acute hospital to serve the population of north and mid Hampshire.
One of them is the current site of Basingstoke and North Hampshire Hospital. The other is land near to Junction 7 of the M3.
The location of any future hospital is one of the issues we will be keen to discuss when we come to consult with patients, staff and the public.
Click here for more information about the site selection process.
As you may recall, Hampshire Hospitals was named as one of the trusts chosen to receive capital funding as part of the Department of Health and Social Care’s Health Infrastructure Plan (HIP), which is designed to support 40 hospital building projects across the country between 2025 and 2030.
Hampshire Together is the programme set up in response to this.
All NHS and social care organisations across the area are determined to make the most of this opportunity as we strive to support patients, their families and their carers to access the right care, in the right place, at the right time in order to keep them healthy.
A new hospital supports this ambition, but the programme’s impact will reach far beyond the walls of any new building, involving GPs, mental health, community care, social care and the wider voluntary sector, as well as acute hospital care. We want to change health services across the area to make them work better, both for our patients and our hard-working staff.
In October 2020, the Prime Minister announced that all NHS trusts who received seed funding to develop a business case for new hospital projects as part of phase two of the HIP programme, including Hampshire Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust, will be fully funded to deliver these by 2030.
What happens at the hospitals currently run by Hampshire Hospitals will depend on what services are provided at the new hospital and where it is situated.
At this stage, no decisions have been taken. We are working up a number of different options for the way that services are provided and will be asking patients, staff and the public for their views on these when we go out to public consultation.
Deciding which services are provided in which locations is one of the difficult choices that we need to make as part of this programme.
At this stage, no decisions have been taken. We are working up a number of different options for the way that services are provided and will be asking patients, staff and the public for their views on these when we go out to public consultation.
In recent years Hampshire Hospitals has undertaken a number of public engagement exercises on potential changes to clinical models and infrastructure for the delivery of acute health services in north and mid-Hampshire.
This included the development of a full business case for a Critical Treatment Hospital (CTH) in 2016 and an associated pre-consultation research exercise conducted in May 2017.
We are building on all of the previous work – but this is a new project.
Hampshire Together presents a phenomenal opportunity for the people of Hampshire - and there are three clear areas of benefit:
- An opportunity to join up health and care across the area
- State-of-the-art-buildings, technology and equipment
- An economic opportunity for the whole area
You can find out more about all of these on the Benefits page.
All NHS and social care organisations across the area are determined to support patients, their families and their carers to access the right care, in the right place, at the right time in order to keep them healthy.
A new hospital supports this ambition, but the programme’s impact will reach far beyond the walls of any new building, involving GPs, mental health, community care, social care and the wider voluntary sector, as well as acute hospital care. We want to change health services across the area to make them work better, both for our patients and our hard-working staff.
This is a fantastic opportunity to join up the health and care system in our area.
We have been striving for more joined up services for a number of years, and a project of this magnitude gives us a real opportunity to bring mental health and physical health care closer together.
We can also ensure that we connect GPs and hospital doctors using digital technology, as well as incorporating the voluntary and the social care sectors into our design principles from the beginning.
Although we are not actively engaging with the public at this current moment, we still want to hear your thoughts and views on the programme so far! If you would like to share your views and opinions with us, please email hsiccg.hampshiretogether@nhs.net
There will be plenty of ways for the public, our patients, and our staff to actively get involved and have their say when we go to formal public consultation.
Although we are not actively engaging with the public at this current moment, we still want to hear your thoughts and views on the programme so far! If you would like to share your views and opinions with us, please email hsiccg.hampshiretogether@nhs.net.
There will be plenty of ways for the public, our patients, and our staff to actively get involved and have their say when we go to formal public consultation - so keep checking back in for more details!
We are keen to hear from you if you are interested in running a small focus group session for service users. Visit the Running a focus group page for more information.
Engagement is a continuous process. We are constantly taking comments and feedback from patients, carers and families on our services and their experiences to help us adapt and improve.
In a programme to build a new hospital, there are lots of ways in which patient participation can inform and influence the development of proposals. That way we know that the proposals we present in a pubic consultation will already take account of a wide range of community views.
Public consultation is a formal opportunity to submit comments and feedback on specific proposals that will feed directly into the local NHS decision about the size, shape and location of the hospital it wants to build.
Most service changes in the NHS don’t require a formal public consultation. Those that do include proposals that affect a large number of people, or change the location of a service. In this case, possibly moving a hospital does both.
A consultation leads to a decision being made about changes to health and care. It will be designed to get communities involved in decision making and to help us understand how Hampshire residents may be affected by the changes, while Hampshire County Council will be scrutinising the proposals in detail too.
Although we are not actively engaging with the public at this current moment, we still want to hear your thoughts and views on the programme so far! If you would like to share your views and opinions with us, please email hsiccg.hampshiretogether@nhs.net.
There will be plenty of ways for the public, our patients, and our staff to actively get involved and have their say when we go to formal public consultation.