Jigsaw Appeal cash will 'transform' hospital's women's health unit

The Jigsaw Appeal for Women was launched by Fiona Castle in March last year to raise £1.5million by next August for a “transformation” of the current unit.

Director of service development Richard Renaut refused to tell the Daily Echo how much has been raised so far and said further details would be revealed in January.

But he explained: “What we’re doing is developing a women’s health unit that brings together all the outpatient diagnostics, treatments and procedures. We’re trying to put that all under one roof.

“Linked with the project, we’re looking to create a new women’s ward and bring in other surgical procedures.

“We’re increasing the size of both, but they won’t be right on top of each other. It’s a lot better.”

Mr Renaut said there had been no attempt to mislead members of the public over the purpose of the fundraising.

He said: “The appeal is to create a better environment for women in a much larger space.

“At the moment, the unit has some beds, some outpatient and day case facilities, but it’s very cramped.

“We didn’t say expressly that the beds were going to be in the same ward area. Because we put priority on outpatients and diagnostics, it’s bigger than we were initially thinking.

“At the moment we’re just looking at the domino effect: if we create a much larger outpatient area, what moves where?

“We’re working through that now and are hoping to have it signed off by December.”

l Mr Renaut confirmed that the money raised by the last phase of the Jigsaw Appeal, for a new cancer and blood disorders unit, was still being held pending the primary care trust’s decision on whether haematology inpatient beds should be sited at Poole Hospital or the Royal Bourne-mouth.

“In all scenarios, we will be doubling the size of the day care unit, but we’re not going to start building until we know whether we need to include haematology,” he said.