The local papers report that the study into a new hospital has been released.  They do not provide a link to it but it can be found here.

Interesting stuff once you look beyond the frequent spelling mistakes/typos, normal consultant-speak, and heaps of case-study padding.

I almost gave up at page 18 when I came across this:

Outputs of the new paradigm of the biomedical?educational nexus

Industry, academe, non?profit foundations and governments work together to support the
entire continuum of healthcare from discovery to clinical introduction by creating the
following areas of synergy:

I had to double-check that the report had not actually been written by Gartners!

Anyway, a few initial thoughts:

Although this was been talked about for ages as either a new hospital for Crawley or a Pease Pottage hospital, the study and newspaper story are now calling it a study for a hospital in the Horsham/Crawley area, and the study leans very heavily towards a North Horsham location as the preferred option. On page 30 it even says “There is no doubt that the establishment of a new acute services hospital in the Horsham area would have an impact on the existing acute hospitals.”  No mention of Crawley there at all.

For anybody in the centre of Crawley this would mean a new hospital 8km away, compared to the 12km distance to East Surrey as the crow flies.  An improvement, but maybe not what was expected.  I’m sure this was sold to us in Crawley as a feasibility study into a new Crawley hospital.

Then again, this turns out not to be a feasibility study but a ‘pre-feasibility study’. Whatever that means.  Does it mean that we will have to dip into the public purse for a real feasibility study now?

The North Horsham location has interesting implications too.  As well as a hospital and science park it would include a fair bit of housing.  Combined with the West of Bewbush development this would almost close the gap between Horsham and Crawley and make ‘Crawsham’ a step closer.

I think it was always expected that a new hospital at Pease Pottage could totally replace Crawley hospital.  Would that still be the case if a new one was actually a few kms further away in North Horsham?   Could the plan for “a new hospital for Crawley” actually end up with there being no hospital actually in Crawley?

I’ll be interested to read some analysis of this and comment in the local papers.  So far we just have what amounts to a press release from the local Tories.