Consultation begins to decide future of Royal Berkshire Hospital in Reading
The Royal Berkshire Hospital is consulting residents on plans that could lead to a brand new hospital for Reading on a new site, or a major redevelopment of the existing one.
NHS managers say they want to make sure future plans meet the needs of staff, patients, visitors and the local community.
A series of community engagement events got underway on Wednesday, November 10, to begin the consultation process.
Alison Foster, Building Berkshire Together:
Alison Foster, from Building Berkshire Together, said: "Today is the first of a series of engagement events to start with, partly to listen to the community and ask about how much they know about what's happening already, how much they want to be involved, that's patients, carers, people who are in businesses locally, the voluntary sector.
"Everyone has a stake in a new hospital in this community and we want to know what they want from us and how they want us to communicate and engage with them. That's the first stage."
Alison continued: "To stay on site, or to go off site feels very different, but actually if we were to remain on site there is a lot we can do on this site to change the way that we provide services, where services are positioned, what's next to the car park and what isn't.
"Those are the things that are important for people who visit the hospital is when they get here, what is the experience like, so it's equally as important.
"It's great if we could start fresh on a greenfield site or a brownfield site, but actually we could do a lot with the site that we've got if that is what we were left with."
Residents in Reading were asked for their views on the plans:
The original Royal Berkshire Hospital was constructed in 1839 and some patients are still treated in wards which are now more than 175 years old.
Hospital bosses say a significant part of the hospital estate is beyond economic repair or too small to meet all the needs of local communities.
In September 2019, the Department of Health and Social Care published its Health Infrastructure Plan, and announced that the Royal Berkshire NHS Foundation Trust would be one of 40 hospital Trusts to receive funding to develop a case for redevelopment.
Leaders spent 2020 developing a Strategic Outline Case that considers the various options for the future redevelopment of the hospital.
Find out more about the plans and have your say here.