HEALTH chiefs have unveiled plans to transform an ageing Hampshire hospital by building a raft of new facilities.
NHS Property Services has submitted a multi-million-pound proposal to upgrade Ashurst Hospital, most of which is a former workhouse in a poor state of repair.
Proposals include a 70-bed care home and a unit for teenagers with "severe" mental health problems.
The 2.81-hectare site includes the New Forest Birth Centre, the Snowdon Annex, and empty hospital buildings that are no longer needed.
Under the scheme a two-storey extension to the annex will house the Ashurst Child and Family Wellbeing Centre. Former workhouse buildings on adjoining land will be demolished to make way for the proposed new care home.
A design and access statement that accompanies the application says the wellbeing centre will provide a range of services for children and adolescents.
It adds: "The facility will mainly aim to help young people who are finding it hard to manage their emotional and psychological health and who are suffering with acute, chronic and severe mental health problems."
The statement says "outdated and inappropriate" buildings on the site will be torn down to make way for the care home.
"The use proposed should provide much-needed residential accommodation for older people in need of care but also an important social care/local community support service.
"It will also generate significant new employment that should add to the vitality and viability of the local economy."
Another document says healthcare services for children, young people and families in the Totton, Waterside and Romsey areas are currently fragmented.
It adds: "Families of children with complex health needs have reported having to attend multiple locations for different appointments, which adds to anxiety and means care is often not as co-ordinated as it should be."
Existing services operating from the old workhouse buildings are based in "very poor" accommodation.
"Young people and parents have told us it looks like an old, institutional building. It is 'depressing', has poor facilities and is not child-friendly."
NHS Property Services says the scheme will retain the "relatively modern" birth centre and a Victorian chapel that is currently used as an office.
The application has been submitted to the New Forest National Park Authority.
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