Royal Haslar Hospital is to close after all.

After over 254 years (it took its first patient in on 23 October 1753) of treating patients, the old Royal Naval hospital at Haslar in Gosport Hampshire is to close! So says a reply posted on the 10 Downing Street petition site.

This will be a great disappointment not only to the many service people who have used the Haslar facilities over the many years, but also to current local community that have come to depend on the medical services that Haslar provides today.

Here is the reply in full from the Petition web site…

The Government’s priority is to ensure that injured personnel receive the best possible treatment that is available. This requires them to be placed in the most appropriate specialist environment, with associated equipment and trained personnel who have the necessary specialist clinical expertise. For many years Haslar has had nothing like the range of medical facilities and expertise that are found at a major trauma Trust hospital such as Selly Oak. In addition, Selly Oak offers much better links to the military airhead at Brize Norton, and a regional civilian airport that can handle our largest aircraft within easy reach of the receiving hospital. That is why Selly Oak Hospital now serves as the primary receiver of our overseas casualties. This is why the Government sees no need to retain services at the Royal hospital Haslar after planned closure date late 2009.

When the 1994 Defence Costs Study led to the closure of most of the UK’s military hospitals, it was originally intended to retain Haslar, primarily to train military medical personnel for their operational role. But the required number and range of cases did not occur, and in December 1998 the Government announced its decision to phase out Haslar and consolidate training within the NHS, building on the establishment of the Ministry of Defence Hospital Units (MDHUs).

Since then, the hospital has undoubtedly provided services for the local community. The majority of its patients have always been civilian, but the medical needs of the Armed Forces are best served through access to facilities and training in a busy acute care hospital that is managing severe trauma on a daily basis.

Although it ceased to be a military unit on 31 March 2007, Haslar is still owned by the MOD and will continue to function, under the existing partnership arrangement with the Portsmouth NHS Hospitals Trust, until late 2009, when most clinical services, along with both NHS and some military staff, will transfer to the redeveloped Queen Alexandra Hospital in Cosham, Portsmouth. Other military tasks currently retained at Haslar will be transferred to the RCDM and elsewhere. Until the hospital’s closure, military doctors and nurses will continue to serve at Haslar, many of them as part of the Portsmouth MDHU. The MDHU will continue to play a major role for the foreseeable future in providing training for our medical people, as well as providing healthcare for both military and civilian patients.