Hampshire Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust has been awarded £10.2million of government funding, which will be used to make improvements to the pharmacy and orthopaedic departments.
The Department of Health and Social Care has allocated £963 million of extra funding for health facilities across England, with 75 projects receiving money to upgrade facilities.
Hampshire Hospitals was successful in bidding for two projects that will allow more people to be treated at Royal Hampshire County Hospital, in Winchester.
One of the projects will see the pharmacy at Winchester hospital moved to a new location, allowing staff to use equipment that will speed up the process of dispensing medicines to patients.
The other project will see the Trust create a new centre specifically for non-urgent orthopaedic care, reducing the time people have to wait for operations such as hip replacements in the future.
Alex Whitfield, chief executive of Hampshire Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust, which runs Basingstoke and North Hampshire Hospital, Royal Hampshire County Hospital and Andover War Memorial Hospital, said: “Having £10million set aside for these specific programmes is a great investment in our Trust from the Department of Health and Social Care.
“We are really looking forward to progressing these projects. Upgrading our pharmacy facilities at Winchester hospital will have a positive impact on all of our patients as it will mean that we are able to get medicines out to the wards sooner, while creating a new centre for elective orthopaedic care will help us to treat people who require what is often a life-altering operation sooner than we are currently able to.
“This funding means that we have secured a total of nearly £20million in external funding over the last year, which is a huge vote of confidence in our hospitals. We will also continue to seek innovative routes to fund other projects that will benefit our patients and staff.”
Winchester MP Steve Brine, who is a Health Minister and the Minister for Pharmacy, added: “This is excellent news and is, put simply, the new increased investment in our NHS being translated on the ground into services that will greatly benefit my constituents.
“Hospital pharmacy is often the quiet hero of the acute sector and having very recently visited the current location myself, I know how much this move is needed.
“We make these capital awards to Trusts we know will make the best of it so Hampshire Hospitals is rightly pleased with the vote of confidence.”
