CALLS have been made to open a new accident and emergency department (A&E) department in a bid to ease pressure on a Hampshire hospital.

The proposed A&E department Labour politicians say would serve the whole of the 200,000 people living in Fareham and Gosport and would ease pressure on Queen Alexandra Hospital which has been suffering from excessive demand from patients and consequently declared an internal alert at Christmas because it couldn’t cope.

Currently, the borough is served by two community hospital, Gosport War Memorial in Gosport and Fareham Community Hospital in Sarisbury Green, both of which provide mental health care for the elderly, physiotherapy, outpatient services and occupational therapy.

Gosport War Memorial Hospital are also has a minor injuries unit which is staffed by nurses that can treat sprains, cuts, burns and bites.

Alan Durrant, who is leading the campaign said: “It is important to Fareham and Gosport residents that they have an A&E department – they are taking notice of the problems that they face getting to QA.“Residents deserve to have emergency treatment before that first hour lapses and that can only come by having an A&E near to us.”

Under the plans, the Fareham and Gosport Labour party say that the ideal site for a new A&E would be near Daedalus, where it could also benefit Fareham as well Stubbington, and Titchfield and Fareham.

Fareham East Councillor Maryam Brady, who works as a GP at Whiteley Surgery, said: “As the population carries on growing, Fareham and Gosport will eventually need their own hospital.

“However, the difficulty with an A&E department is that you need the infrastructure around it - it cannot be a standalone facility, so I don’t think this has been thought through.”

Gosport MP Caroline Dinenage said: “It seems like a poorly thought through attention grabbing idea, that would not work without the facilities in place around it.”

Councillor Sean Woodward, the leader of Fareham Borough Council also dismissed the idea.

However, he added: “The majority of patients who go to A&E go because they are suffering from minor injuries and these could all be dealt with locally by adding a facility at Fareham Community hospital, there certainly is space.”

However, Dr David Chilvers, chairman of the Fareham and Gosport Clinical Commissioning Group (CCG), added: “We have no plans of building a new A&E department in the area.”He added that the area is already helping to relieve the pressure on the emergency department in a number of ways which includes acute home visiting service in Gosport which frees up GP appointments for other patients – and the same day access service at Fareham Community Hospital which provides both same day ‘phone triage and face-to-face appointments.