CARE and compassion at Basingstoke hospital were in the spotlight at a public meeting.

Donna Green, deputy chief executive and chief nurse of Hampshire Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust, and chairman Elizabeth Padmore were on hand to talk to members of the public and governors about the importance of care and compassion in the NHS at a rescheduled Health Focus meeting, held in The Moose Centre in Churchill Way, Basingstoke.

Mrs Padmore said: “We have always had care and compassion at the heart of what we do but, of course, it is particularly important given news of the long-awaited release of the Robert Francis public inquiry report.”

She said that she and others at the trust would be reading the report by the top barrister into the scandal at the Mid-Staffordshire NHS Foundation Trust, where many patients died needlessly due to neglect and many more endured poor treatment between 2005 and 2008, and said they would be “looking at all of the recommendations.”

Mrs Green gave a presentation about Hampshire Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust, which was formed just over a year ago after Basingstoke hospital took over the running of hospitals in Winchester and Andover.

She emphasised how important it is to keep healthcare local and said the trust was keen to provide more care in the community – something they have done with a mobile MRI scanner and a mobile chemotherapy unit.

She said: “We want to try as much as possible to have services locally.”

She also outlined some of the trust’s plans for the future, including the construction of a critical care hospital within the next few years.

She said the location of the hospital, which will be built somewhere in the patch of land encircled by the M3, A303 and A34, is still to be decided.

The next HHFT Health Focus event is likely to be held later in the year in either Andover or Winchester.