Health bosses: We'll buy Clevedon's £15m hospital site by March

A site for Clevedon's new £15m hospital will be purchased by March next year, health bosses have revealed.

NHS South West has given NHS North Somerset the green light to spend funds allocated in its budget on purchasing a piece of land in the seaside resort to build the new state of the art hospital on.

NHS North Somerset submitted its outline business case for the new hospital to the Strategic Health Authority (SHA) earlier this year.

The business case was approved by the SHA last month on the basis that a site for the hospital would be secured by March 2010.

NHS North Somerset is currently considering five sites in the town for a new hospital.

These include the former Kwik Save site at Millcross, Clevedon Hall, land at Clevedon Business Park, a site at Northern Way and the former Clerical Medical building.

Once the site has been purchased, a full business case will be put together and submitted to the SHA for the funds to build the new hospital.

But there are no guarantees when the money for the development will be made available by the SHA.

Bosses at NHS North Somerset said they were confident that the deal to buy the site would be completed by March next year.

A spokesman for NHS North Somerset said: "The money to purchase the site for the new hospital is allocated in this financial year's budgets.

"We are still negotiating with potential site owners.

"Everything is in place to ensure that the site is purchased by March.

"We will be discussing the options for sites with stakeholders and local people next month and this will help in the final discussions on the site. Our current assessment of these site options shows that certain sites appear more advantageous than others but we are continuing to negotiate with all five parties and, for reasons of commercial confidentiality we cannot divulge the stage we are at with these negotiations."

If the funding gets the green light, building work on the new 24-bed hospital could start in 2010 and take around 18 months to complete.

Exact details of what services will be provided at the hospital will be based on the medical needs of the local population. Consultation has already taken place with residents, GPs, local councillors and other health providers to assess what facilities are required. The current Cottage Hospital is based in Victorian buildings at Old Street.

The hospital was built in 1857 by Sir John Hallam Elton, a member of the Elton family of Clevedon Court.