THE long wait was finally over as health bosses discovered on Wednesday that the Chase Community Hospital has been awarded another £700,000, which will save the MacIlwain ward from closure.

Last week the hospital was awarded £700,000 to become a primary care and diagnostic treatment centre.

This week Minister of State for Health Jacqui Smith announced that Bordon hospital has been awarded the capital grant which will fund the refurbishment of the ward with 24 beds.

It means that the North and Mid Hampshire Health Authority and the Primary Care Trust can ditch cost-cutting plans to close the ward.

Instead, consultation will formally start on Monday over the fresh plans under which the ward would accommodate 12 intermediate care beds and 12 nursing care beds used and paid for by social services.

This will not only allow savings to be made, but also mean there will continue to be some local beds for local people.

The five-week extended consultation period is being rushed through in a bid to bring to an end the uncertainty surrounding the hospital, which has been losing staff since the original proposals to close the ward were first put together last year.

A health authority spokesman described it as Ògreat news for the ChaseÓ.

The first public consultation meeting on the revised plans is taking place on Thursday, March 14, in St Marks Shared Church in Bordon at 7 pm.

It is hoped that further public meetings will also take place on March 20 and April 9, with the consultation ending on April 15.

As well as the future of the hospital, the consultation will also concern how local people would like the existing eight GP and eight consultant beds to be reprovided during the refurbishment of the ward.

Options are to not reprovide the beds, to provide them in the nursing home sector, to put up a temporary building at the Chase site or to provide them through a temporary shake-up of beds at Alton Community Hospital and the North Hampshire Hospital in Basingstoke.

The first two options are expected to be rejected outright as being undesirable and impractical.

The provision of a temporary ward at the Chase Hospital site is also expected to be undesirable because of the cost.

Not only would it cost around £65,000 to ÒbuildÓ the temporary structure, but it would also cost around £18,000 a month to run it and would take up the vast majority of the hospitalÕs car park.

The fourth option under which Alton and BasingstokeÕs hospitals would cater for the patients is expected to be the most popular.