THE OUTLINE planning application for the new block at the Royal Bournemouth Hospital contains a request to have a building for a new nursing home, the Daily Echo can reveal.

Plans published this week show that along with the new Emergency Department, which will occupy the space on the front car-park alongside Castle Lane East, RBCH wants to include a nursing home at another location on the hospital’s vast site.

A Trust spokesperson said: “The master plan for the site ten years ago had a nursing home application for this area, and we’re looking to renew this, to keep open the option of developing the land at a later point.”

She said the land is currently being used as surface car parking. “There are no detailed designs or business cases, but will be something we consider at a future date,” she said. “Our focus is on the NHS buildings on the front of the site, where the detailed work and designs have been sent to the planning department.”

The hospital could not say when any nursing home building may be built, or what form or size any structure would be.

“The ownership and running is not decided on as it’s very much something for consideration in the future,” said the spokesman. “It was in the plans submitted a few weeks ago.”

Currently RBCH’s Castle Lane site has an accommodation village for NHS staff at the back of the hospital with around 200 properties. The majority of these consist of flats containing five single bedrooms and communal areas which are rented out for around £400 a month.

Ward councillor Lawrence Williams has RBCH in his ward and welcomed the application for a nursing home on the hospital site. “We already have the former Retired Nurses Home very nearby but it’s not part of the hospital,” he said.

“I would say that a nursing home is great idea,” he said. “If they can take people out of hospital beds that are being used and put them into adjacent buildings it does help free up beds. I entirely support that.”

He does not believe any new building would impact on traffic in the area. “I’m hoping that the new road behind the hospital will carry on and as long as it does, I don’t think any additional building is going to impact,” he said.

The outline plans also apply for permission for a new electricity sub-station and alterations to existing footpaths as well as new roadways.