Gosport Borough Council are hopeful that thousands of people will turn out to say thanks to the staff of Haslar Hospital this coming Wednesday (28 March) and have therefore made arrangements for overspill parking to be made available on Walpole Park, Gosport.
As the MoD finally withdraw from this, the last military hospital, plans are being put in place to allow everyone who has reason to be grateful to the hospital and staff for the excellent treatment they have provided, to be able to come along and say thank you for a job well done.
For over two hundred years they have been providing medical treatment for sailors and, in more recent years, that service has been extended to include soldiers and air men and women and the residents of the local community too.
A ceremony will be held in the Timespace on the Millennium Promenade commencing at 11am, during which the Freedom of the Borough currently held by Haslar will be extended to the MDHU Portsmouth.
Following the ceremony there will be a fly past, before the Civic procession parade back to the Town Hall to receive the salute as men and women of Haslar execute their right as Freemen of the Borough for the final time.
“We would like as many people as possible to turn out and say thank you for the excellent service they have provided not just to the men and women of our services but to us as a community,” said the Mayor, Councillor June Cully. “We are of course saddened by the fact that the MoD no longer wishes to use the hospital, but that is not the fault of those serving there who deserve our thanks not our criticisms. We have not given up the fight to maintain medical services on the site and will continue to do so, but in the meantime it is important we thank those who have worked so tirelessly for us all.”
