THE boss of a private hospital says the NHS and the wider public will benefit if it is allowed to relocate to a new site at Talbot Village.

Nuffield Health wants to move its Bournemouth hospital to the Innovation Quarter being proposed for land between the town’s universities and Talbot Heath.

Talbot Village Trust is consulting over its masterplan for the area, while the hospital is working on a detailed application for relocation from its current Lansdowne Road site.

More than 3,600 people have signed a petition against the hospital. 

David McNair, director of the hospital, said there would be benefits for “everyone in the community”.

“Since the pandemic, we’ve seen over 18,000 NHS patients. We’re working more and more closely and we’re becoming a major support network to the NHS,” he said.

“That gives us more capacity to be able to do NHS work that they’re asking for.”

Nuffield Health started in Boscombe 65 years ago and now has 37 hospitals across the country. It has been on its current Bournemouth site since 1993 and employs around 310 people locally.

Mr McNair said: “Since the pandemic, we are full. We don’t have enough beds, we don’t have enough theatre capacity, we don’t have enough outpatient capacity or diagnostic capacity and we are really are struggling.”

He said the hospital’s work during the pandemic had strengthened links with the NHS.

“We have contracts now where we see thousands of NHS patients annually. Healthcare now has reached a state where the demand is outstripping the capacity in the area,” he said.

He said of the current site: “It doesn’t have the space currently to offer Nuffield Health community programmes and these are free to the local community, so some of our communities are missing out on these programmes.”

He said Nuffield Health was driving innovation and was performing more robotic hip replacements – where the surgeon is assisted by a robotic arm – than any other independent hospital in Europe.

It was conducting important research and could help the public with free initiatives such as cystic fibrosis programmes and stamina clinics for prostate cancer patients.

Ian Ford, head of capital projects at Nuffield Health, said the hospital would be one of the most sustainable in the UK. It would involve an £86million investment and create 40-50 more jobs.

It would also forge closer links with Bournemouth University.

Nick Ashley-Cooper, chairman of Talbot Village Trust, which is proposing the Innovation Quarter on its land, said: “We really have the palpable sense that we’re in a healthcare emergency and so part of our charitable remit is to help people and support what is a real need in the community."

Talbot Village Trust is consulting over its plans throughout July. Visit talbotinnovationquarter.co.uk