At Basingstoke’s Investment Update on November 5, as part of Basingstoke Business Week, Chief Strategy and Population Health Officer Shirlene Oh from Hampshire Hospitals discussed plans for the Hampshire Health Campus.
The four-wing, four-storey campus would be a non-governmentally funded initiative, bringing together academic partners, universities, investors and tenants to create a ‘key innovation centre’ in the region.
Shirlene said: “We want to bring forward the health campus. The campus that we want to build alongside the new hospital is a centre for science, academia and innovation to come together.
3D modelling image (Image: Stride Tregowan)
“We want this to be an accelerator, bringing skills in, bringing employment to the area and working with educational institutions to make sure we have staff.”
A bird’s-eye design of the campus (Image: Newsquest)
The campus would be built in phases, combining simulations, labs, teaching facilities and offices in one building, which could be extended in the future if required.
Shirlene explained that the health campus’ progress ‘depends on the momentum we can build’ and discussions have begun with investors and partners, with one university on board and three others expressing interest.
She detailed that there is an opportunity to deliver the campus before the new hospital, which is currently projected to begin building between 2037-39 and be completed in 2042.
No clinical healthcare would be provided at the campus and it would be independent of new hospital decisions and wouldn’t influence any timescales, location options and decisions or land allocation that exist under the New Hospital Programme.
She said: “We would look at how we improve health as innovation, and for sickness and prevention, keeping people healthy helps the economy.
“I think this is a great once-in-a-lifetime opportunity for the hospital and also for the campus. We have a number of interested parties.
“The sooner the better for us really.”