FRESH plans for Heatherwood Hospital as part of a £72 million demolition and rebuild were unveiled at a public engagement event on Friday.

The proposals put forward by the Frimley Health NHS Foundation Trust would see a new hospital built in woodland on the London Road site and the former hospital demolished, with the land then sold off to an external developer.

The current hospital would be kept open and operating while the new hospital is being built.

Construction on the new facility would begin in 2017, spanning two years.

The hospital’s existing six theatres, 34 in-patient beds and 24 spaces for day cases and endoscopy facilities would be transformed into six operating theatres offering general surgery, plastic surgery, trauma and orthopaedics, 40 beds, eight new private patient spaces, 22 day case spaces and endoscopy facilities.

A total of 50 per cent of beds will be single rooms with en suite facilities and the rest will be in four-bed bays.

Plans are also under way to convert the former mental health building into a space for corporate functions, which will also incorporate finance, HR and IT departments from Frimley Park and Wexham. 

Speaking at the event at Ascot Racecourse, the trust’s CEO Andrew Morris said: “We are envisaging a brand new hospital in the woodland area and we would sell off the current hospital for residential housing.

“We plan on doing a lot of orthopaedic work; there a several reasons for that: there is a need to separate elective work (pre-arranged, non-emergency care) from emergency work from a controlled infection point of view.

“We think this is a positive move. We want to make it a centre of excellence for orthopaedics.

“We would like to offer centralised GP practices out of Heatherwood campus, so if someone were to go see their GP and needs to have blood test or an X-ray, the patient can then hop round the corner and get it done. It means we will have primary and secondary care co-located.

“We want to keep as many facilities a possible running on the Heatherwood Hospital site.”

Bracknell Labour councillor Mary Temperton, who was at the event, said: “So many people have fought for such a long time to get this hospital retained.

“Medicine is changing so fast so this is needed; if they keep the other hospital open until the new hospital is open, at least they can continue to save people whilst it is being built.

“The fact that they have proposed building it while keeping the other hospital open is a good thing, otherwise there could have been a danger that the phoenix wouldn’t rise from the ashes.”