PLANS have been unveiled for a new hospice at a Hampshire hospital.

Burrell House, on the site of Royal Hampshire County Hospital in Winchester, will be converted into a 10-bed hospice to support patients with life-limiting illnesses and their families.

With no hospice currently situated in the city, the facility aims to open its doors by early 2019.

There will be services on site and in the community including a hospice at home service to support patients who wish to remain at home in the last few weeks of their life, inpatient beds with ensuite facilities and a space for day therapy and outpatient facilities.

More than £2.5 million is needed to refurbish the building, which the Hampshire Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust hopes to raise through a fundraising campaign.

A trust spokesman said they were unable to say at present how many jobs the hospice would create but that it would be run by Hampshire Hospitals and supported by charitable funds.

This will be used for “additional staffing and services that the NHS cannot provide, complementary therapies for example, as well to maintain and improve the environment for patients”.

Dr Stephanie Killick, clinical lead for end of life care at Hampshire Hospitals, who will be lead consultant, said: “We are really looking forward to being able to provide hospice-based end of life care in Winchester.

“Following the successful model which the trust runs from The Countess of Brecknock Hospice in Andover, Winchester Hospice will empower more patients to live as well as possible, for as long as possible.”

Alex Whitfield, chief executive of Hampshire Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust, said: “We think it will make a really positive difference in the local community, helping both patients and their families during what is always a very difficult time.”

More information will be given at a talk at Guildhall Winchester on November 28 at 6.30pm.