Winchester health bosses are preparing for a multi-million pound property sell-off to help ease their chronic financial problems.

Although the potential sale could raise an estimated £20m, most of the money will be taken by regional health chiefs.

The cash-strapped Winchester and Eastleigh Healthcare NHS Trust would get a proportion of the income but nowhere near the total.

The trust is considering the sale of Highcroft, the offices in Romsey Road, currently the home of the ambulance trust. Its desirable location at the top of Sleepers Hill would generate up to £4m.

Another sale has long been known about, the sale of the Mount Hospital in Bishopstoke, near Eastleigh, which could raise some £5.5m.

The sale and then leaseback of residences, such as the nurses quarters at 45 Romsey Road, could bring in £5m.

Selling Marlfield House in St James Lane could generate £800,000.

Other sales are: land at Andover War Memorial Hospital, £2m; Physiotherapy building in Bishop's Waltham, £200,000; Adelaide Health Centre, Andover, £800,000;

Trust managers estimate the minimum income from the sale is £11.7m with £20.3m the maximum.

A spokesman said: "We would benefit but the money would go to the health authority to be used across the area."

The sell-off would not leave staff such as nurses with nowhere to live.

She said: "The Trust will ensure that there is sufficient accommodation for staff (existing and future), whether this is owned and managed by the Trust, transferred to another organisation or sold on a lease-back arrangement.

"We are keen to use its resources to focus on its core business, providing healthcare.

"Other organisations have expertise in providing good quality housing for key workers and we will be looking to these to help us make the most of our assets for the benefit of our patients."

As new buildings at the Royal Hampshire County Hospital is completed, other parts of the estate will become surplus to requirements.

But a report stated that they are part of the RHCH's main site and are the only remaining potential areas for further expansion.

The trust has an underlying deficit of some £4m.

A spokesman for the ambulance trust said: "We will look wherever we can get premises that are fit for purpose and cost-effective. But we have no firm plans at the moment - it is something that we are looking at."