Eastleigh Borough Council’s full council meeting motion on Moorgreen Hospital :-
Council notes that at a recent meeting with Southampton Primary Care Trust the owners of the Moorgreen Hospital site revealed that significant parts of the site are regarded as surplus to future health service requirements and are likely to be sold for redevelopment.
Council further notes that:
a) the Borough’s recently adopted Local Plan identifies this site as a Special Policy Area for the exclusive use of healthcare services;
b) the Council has long sought improved health provision for the southern part of the Borough; and
c) the South East Plan shows growth of a further 6,000 new homes in a Strategic Development Area north/north-east of Hedge End by 2026.
Council resolves to continue to support enhanced health provision at the Moorgreen site, to oppose the removal of health services from this location and the disposal of the site for other land uses.
Speech in support of the above motion :-
This plan by Southampton Primary Care Trust is a scandalously short term one and shows a complete lack of vision and forethought in the provision of health care services.
The master plan appears to be close or reduce services in district centres whether at Moorgreen, the Mount, or the New Forest and concentrate everything at the General in Southampton.
Farther a field from West End we see the threat to close all emergency services in West Sussex with the possibility of heart attack victims having to travel to Portsmouth !!
Back in West End the Moorgreen Hospital site is on ideal site to provide local hospital and health care facilities to the people of Eastleigh.
The PCTs driving factor is cost they appear to believe that one central hospital is the way to run primary care provision at the lowest cost.
The problem is some of the best primary care provision can be found in Cuba, where money is hardly flowing but the life expectancy is greater than in the US.
In heath care big is not beautiful and local provision for local services are best.
Therefore I fully support this motion and hope that the rest of the council will to so, so that we can try and keep 100% of this land as reserved for health care provision and not half of it as the PCT quango is proposing.