EHDC’s FERRIS COWPER talks about his ambitious plan to replace The Chase with a state-of-the-art health hub that will be the envy of other towns

OVER the next 10 years it is probable that the town will double in size.

Alongside this growth is a commitment from the public sector and the private sector to deliver excellent infrastructure and community facilities to make the town one of the best places to live in Britain.

Already the town’s regeneration has made headlines with the scale and early delivery of vital infrastructure.

The first construction project in the entire regeneration was the relief road - not, as is usual, new houses.

Infrastructure before houses is the popular cry and this was delivered here in Whitehill and Bordon.

Since then, the town has witnessed on-time delivery of jobs and education at the Future Skills Centre, BASE business centre, the 1759 Cafe, Chieftain House and Enterprise Park, as well as housing at Quebec Park and Louisburg.

On-time projects soon to be completed include the new secondary school, two new churches, a state-of-the-art energy supply centre, the new leisure centre and the new sports club and pavilion at BOSC.

Of course, the regeneration has also acquired for the town Enterprise Zone, Housing Zone and Healthy New Town status.

This record of the delivery of infrastructure and social fabric has given the entire programme credibility; established it as a national exemplar, and offered hope and encouragement to thousands of residents.

With this track record, we can afford to be optimistic about even more adventurous projects not yet started, including the new shopping centre and the new health hub.

Whitehill and Bordon has always looked to its GPs and the Chase Hospital for its non-emergency healthcare, with specialised and acute care being delivered by one of the major hospitals.

In the past few years, the Hampshire Hospitals Trust has reduced the range of services available at The Chase and all the beds have gone.

Many aspects of the services previously offered by The Chase have not proved financially viable to the NHS and, as a result, the services have closed.

This programme of steady but inexorable diminution in the services offered by The Chase has been well reported and discussed and I can see no end to this steady decline.

In my opinion, there is little doubt that The Chase will close. What worries me greatly is not that it will close, provided it is replaced by something better, but that the closure will be long and painful.

There is no doubt that this “slow death” of The Chase is emotionally upsetting to many local people. So what can we do?

The district council (East Hampshire) recognised this trend at the very beginning of the regeneration in 2015 and immediately set about the immensely challenging task of drawing together partners from the private and public sectors, not just to replace The Chase but to deliver a state-of-the-art healthcare facility that would be the envy of towns of a similar size throughout the UK.

I took this decision because I felt that playing the waiting game for something to rejuvenate The Chase would end in disappointment given the steady decline in services.

I felt it was better to take control of the situation and set about delivering something much better with many more medical facilities than had ever been seen at The Chase, even in its prime.

The current situation is that we have private funders lined up and in discussions. We have a motivated clinical adviser.

We have the NHS South East Hampshire Clinical Commissioning Group in positive discussion with us and with its NHS colleagues and we have had a very positive mutual briefing session with the NHS Hampshire Hospitals Trust.

In addition we have a site designated for the new health hub in the town’s masterplan.

So what facilities are we negotiating for with these private and public-sector partners? The target list is this:–

GP practice: A GP+ facility, in the past called a minor-injuries service but now known as an urgent-treatment centre.

•State-of-the-art diagnostic centre for a walk-in-walk-out test-results service.

•Care home, provided privately but with a contract to sell beds to the NHS.

•Dementia unit based on the world leader at Hoogwey, Netherlands, running on the same basis as the care home.

•Beds available to the urgent treatment centre where possible.

•Pharmacy.

•Training facilities.

•New X-ray.

•New wearable technology to keep patients in 24/7 contact with their clinical team.

•Ancillary services.

I’m not suggesting this is easy to achieve but at this stage everything is in position to allow us move forward with this plan. It’s ambitious of course.

Even so, I feel that this is the healthcare that the regenerated town deserves.

The regeneration is delivering excellence across the board. The regenerated town deserves the very best healthcare and a shrinking Chase Hospital is not going to supply the answers.

As with all of the projects in the regeneration, the health hub has ambition, excellence and state-of-the-art technology.

It needs vision and determination to drive it home and I will give everything to ensure that the district council and its partners will do all they can to make this dream a reality.

Ferris Cowper is East Hampshire District Council’s cabinet member and chairman of Whitehill and Bordon Regeneration