BORDON’S Chase Hospital must stay open “as long as possible” to serve residents while new health-hub plans are developed, the district council’s portfolio holder for the town said.

The East Hampshire District Council cabinet member for Whitehill and Bordon, Ferris Cowper, expects “a continued supply of good news” about future health services locally.

Last week he told the Herald that the town’s hospital should stay operational in the meantime.

He said the planned new health hub was “expected to be the finest healthcare facility of its type in southern England”.

His comments came after the county council’s health and adult social care select committee, last month, asked the NHS for more detail on plans to move clinics out of Chase Hospital. The committee agreed more information was needed and will reconvene in November.

The Hampshire Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust says outpatient services at the Chase are underused and economically unviable.

Although other providers offer some services from the hospital, the trust’s intention to move its clinics to Alton worried some residents about the Chase’s future. More than 2,000 have signed a petition calling for better health provision in Whitehill and Bordon.

A champion of the proposed new health hub, provided as part of the town’s regeneration, Mr Cowper believes that while the hospital’s closure is inevitable, service continuity is essential. “Local county councillor Adam Carew has been strident in his support of the Chase, as I have,” Mr Cowper said. “I have taken the case to both the minister for health and also the secretary of state for health in personal one-to-one meetings to put the case for retaining the Chase and I don’t think any other campaigner has been so successful. It’s vital that we retain the Chase for as long as possible and so, despite the imminence of the plans for the new health hub, the Chase will provide vital services in the interim.”

The county council is, in effect, a consultee as the final decision is in the NHS’ hands, with the local Clinical Commissioning Group ultimately choosing which services go where.

Stakeholders have been looking for alternative providers for some services and the trust has extended outpatient clinics to March 31.

Mr Cowper said: “The district council with NHS partners (Clinical Commissioning Group and Hampshire Hospitals NHS Trust), as well as private commercial healthcare providers, is well advanced with plans for the new Whitehill and Bordon health hub. There are several providers very keen to be a part of what is expected to be the finest healthcare facility of its type in southern England.

“To put together the whole scheme will take a little time but the planning application for the first phase, the GP and supporting ancillary services, is expected as soon as January.

“Together with the town centre’s detailed planning application, expected in December this year, this will take the community a significant and vital step forward towards the provision of this exceptional development. I expect a continued supply of good news about further services, further planning applications for care beds and dementia units, plus news about interested funders of the investment, throughout 2019.”