By James Bowman

WORK on Farnham's new community hospital is scheduled to start within days and be up and running in July 2003.

Following months of uncertainty over the £21 million state-of-the-art hospital, Surrey and Hampshire Borders NHS Trust, which runs the current hospital and will manage its replacement, announced this week that the Private Finance Initiative (PFI) funding the scheme has been finalised.

Although the PFI is complete, one issue remains: how much money GPs at the Farnham Health Centre will have to pay for the maintenance of their planned premises at the hospital. But this is not expected to be a major obstacle.

The hospital will be one of 500 new Local Care Centres across the country announced in the government's NHS Plan, aimed at modernising the NHS.

Fiona Green, Surrey Hampshire Borders chief executive, said: "We are pleased that the final hurdle has been cleared and we have the go-ahead to start building the Farnham Local Care Centre.

"Our partners are ready to start work almost immediately in November. The community will start to see the difference straight away and we will ask them, our users, their carers and our staff to bear with us as the work goes on at the site which may create some inconvenience in the short term but we think everyone will agree will be worth it. We very much look forward to welcoming the first patients in July 2003."

The hospital, which will be re-built on the existing site, with the old Victorian building demolished and spare land sold for development, will have 84 beds - following a hard-fought battle to secure in-patient accommodation.

It will also comprise: four GP practices (replacing those at the current Farnham Health Centre); community nursing; 24-hour local emergency care; community dental nursing; pharmacy; eating disorder service; diagnostic and outpatient services supported by telemedicine, whereby doctors can send a patient's x-ray down a telephone line to a consultant at another hospital; day assessment and treatment for frail elderly patients and those with dementia; social care services locality office; community mental health services; and outpatient and assessment facilities for children's services.

Chairman of Surrey Hampshire Borders NHS Trust Mary Sennet said work should start early this month.

"The approval of the centre marks a major step forward in our efforts to improve health services for the people of Farnham. It will facilitate the development of new ways of working in modern high-quality facilities."

The news comes a week after Virginia Bottomley wrote to Ms Sennett asking for a progress report on the hospital.

Last month The Herald reported how there was, at that time, still no start-date for the construction work but hospital managers felt PFI completion was imminent.

Welcoming the news Mrs Bottomley said: "I'm delighted. It's been a long hard battle. There remain some issues for the local GPs to resolve but I'm confident those will be addressed.

"The health service locally and nationally is in a truly appalling state and a new community hospital will give us a tremendous boost."

Christine Kyme, the practice manager for Dr O' Donnell, one of the four practices at the Farnham Health Centre, said no-one at the Brightwells-based surgery wanted to comment on the GPs' level of contribution to their new premises at the hospital.

Part of the government's drive to use private money to pay for public services, the PFI involves Surrey Hampshire Borders NHS Trust and its partners the developers MJ Gleeson, the Norwich Union and the Mill Group.

The Norwich Union and the Mill Group will pay MJ Gleeson to build the hospital - which will take an estimated two years to build - and lease it back to Surrey Hampshire Borders for the term of the 25-year lease.

After the lease runs out Surrey Hampshire Borders, which will then own the complex, will review the appropriateness of the hospital's services, which could mean buildings used differently.