DISTRICT council-led plans to create a “vibrant and dynamic” health campus in Whitehill and Bordon have been welcomed by the NHS.

But the council’s commitment to providing the facilities could affect the ongoing redevelopment at the Chase Hospital.

In welcoming the new health-campus scheme - set to be delivered by 2019 - Sara Tiller, NHS Clinical Commissioning Group chief development officer and project director for redeveloping the Chase, said plans for building works at the hospital would “inevitably” now need to be re-evaluated.

The regeneration of the Chase has seen multiple delays since its inception, exacerbated by a remodelling of how the NHS operates, with the old primary care trusts) being essentially replaced with clinical commissioning groups) in 2013.

The original two-phased plan for the hospital involved developing a new model which would see an integrated care team visiting people’s homes and four beds commissioned at Wenham Holt Nursing Home in Liss.

And the interior of the hospital would see a boost, costing more than £3m, to pave the way for more services and new GP practices.

Although the Chase beds ward was closed and the care team established in September 2013, the second phase has seen hiccups and, last year, it was announced the scheme may need to be scaled down.

The NHS South Eastern Hampshire Clinical Commissioning Group said this week that it had been working with East Hampshire District Council and other partners to discuss future health and care provision in the town.

Earlier this month the district council announced plans for a “state-of-the-art health campus” in the new town centre at Prince Philip Barracks, with a potential developer on board.

Ms Tiller said: “The clinical commissioning group has always been committed to providing the best possible range of healthcare services that we can to the people Whitehill and Bordon and we very much welcome the council’s work in bringing all the various partners together.

“In addition to the Healthy New Towns scheme, local GPs have managed to secure funding from the Government to test new models of care across south east Hampshire as a ‘vanguard’ area.

“Neither of these opportunities could have been foreseen at the start of the project to redevelop Chase.

“But these proposals are extremely exciting and represent a once-in-a-generation opportunity to provide the type of quality health and care services the local community has been crying out for. They incorporate everything previously included with the Chase redevelopment plus innovative, state-of-the-art models of care that had not been envisaged when the original Chase project was developed. Such exciting and dynamic plans for a new purpose-built facility, just a mile or so away from the Chase hospital, inevitably would mean we need to re-evaluate the viability of a bid to fund building works at the Chase.

“But it would be our intention that Chase will remain open and act as the base for the development of the new model of care over the next few years, while the plans for the new town centre facility are developed and implemented.”