HELPING to lead Basingstoke hospital through a successful bid for foundation status is one of the key aims for the new chairman of North Hampshire Hospitals NHS Trust.

But before any bid can go ahead, the hospital needs to become financially stable.

Rob Donnelly, a former Basingstoke and Deane Borough Council leader, took over as chairman at the beginning of July. He is looking forward to playing a central role in the hospital's second bid for foundation trust status - now being planned for 2007 - after the hospital backed out of a bid last year because of financial concerns.

"The hospital decided not to go for it because it was concerned it was not in a stable enough situation financially," said Mr Donnelly. "Part of the process now is about getting that financial stability.

"It's about understanding what we do and how we do it and staying focused on those objectives, but it's also about understanding where we want to be in five years' time.

"One of the nice things about foundation trust status is bringing other people in. There is a much wider body of people being able to influence where they see the local hospital going."

Foundation status would mean a radical change in the way the hospital is run, with the possibility of members of the public being elected to a new management board and making decisions about health care in the region.

Basingstoke hospital is currently heading towards being £5.2million in the red at the end of this financial year, although a recovery plan is already in place.

Mr Donnelly said: "Managing a hospital and sticking within budget is a big task and I will continue striving for improvement in that.

"This is the only business I know where the more successful you are, the less money you have.

"It's a cash-limited service and the more patients you see the more it costs.

"Our great task is to operate within the income we have and avoid putting the population under any great stress.

"What we do not want is for people to be turned away from the hospital, and that will never happen.

"There are other ways of raising income and this hospital works quite hard at that. It has contracts with the Army, which provides additional income, and we also provide care for people outside this area, which also brings money in."

Mr Donnelly, a retired software specialist who lives in South View, Basingstoke, brings his experience of 17 years' service on the regional health authority for Wessex to his new role.

He said: "The work on the regional health authority gave me opportunities to see a lot of different hospitals working and how different approaches work or don't work.

"I wanted to work for this hospital trust because it's my local hospital and I have lived in Basingstoke for 35 years.

"I have been a patient and a relative of patients and have visited friends here ever since this place opened.

"If you have an opportunity to work for something as important in your local community as your local hospital, you jump at the chance."