SOUTHAMPTON hospital bosses have defended teaming up with a children’s charity funded by a fast food chain – as it prepares to boot out Burger King from its premises.

A campaign to retain the Burger King outlet at Southampton General Hospital is gaining more and more momentum after the hospital announced it had no plans to renewthe lease when it expires in 2016.

But Daily Echo readers have accused health chiefs of double standards as Ronald McDonald House, a charity offshoot of McDonalds, is set to open at the site in the next few weeks.

Commenting on our website, one reader said: “Do you see the hospital turning the Ronald McDonald funds away?

“Bit hypocritical that you will take the monies raised from a fast food outlet but not let one in the building.”

Another reader said: “Maybe the new McDonald’s hotel didn’t like the fact they haven’t got a fast food place there and turned the screw on to the trust.”

University Hospital Southampton NHS Foundation Trust, which runs the General, said there was a clear difference between working with the charity and allowing a commercial business to operate in the hospital.

A spokesman said: “The main entrance project/Burger King franchise issue is completely unrelated to the development of Ronald McDonald House, which is charity- funded accommodation for parents and families of children who visit Southampton for care and treatment.”

Meanwhile a spokesman for Ronald McDonald House said the new build would not contain any fast food restaurant and was there to provide a “free home away from home” for families.

The spokesman said: “There will not be a McDonald’s restaurant in the House and this is the same for each of the 14 Ronald McDonald Houses across the UK.

“The charity’s remit is to provide family-centred care under a model it has developed over many years to enable children in hospital to have their family nearby.”

The trust has previously said the Burger King restaurant will exit as part of a wider redevelopment of its entrance that will be completed by 2016.

Health chiefs said the reason the lease has not been renewed is to reflect the healthcare setting of the hospital.

The £7m Ronald McDonald House will provide 53 beds for families of children being treated at the hospital and was set up in the UK in 1989.

Construction began in June 2013 and over the past 18 months thousands of pounds has been raised for the charity by Southampton residents through activities from collecting cash in shops and high streets to indoor rowing challenges and sponsored head shaves.

Over the past year more than 2,000 families have travelled to the hospital from outside the region to allow their children to have treatment.

The house will also include communal kitchens, lounges, playrooms and a laundry room to make sure families can maintain normal life while staying close to their child.

Every bedroom will also have a direct telephone link to the children’s ward.

The charity is funded by fast food chain McDonalds as well as other corporate partners and donations.

Annual running costs will be around £500,000.

Fundraising and donations will also go towards meeting these costs.