WORK on a state-of-the-art hospital serving 182,000 people in the New Forest is set to start next May after years of delays, the Daily Echo can reveal.

Health chiefs have announced that two companies involved in the race to build the £36m complex are putting the finishing touches to their plans.

Kajima Europe and its rival, Ryhurst Ltd, have been working on detailed proposals for the past three months.

Once the process is complete the finalised bids will be evaluated in September by senior clinicians and primary care trust managers.

New Forest Primary Care Trust and its private finance initiative team will then hold detailed talks with the preferred partner, and contracts are likely to be signed next spring.

Trust spokesman Sue Howson said: "We have to go into a great deal of detail to ensure that the plans each company produces are workable.

"We have now agreed where all the departments will be located in each design.

"We have held final day-long sessions at which doctors and nurses have joined the private finance initiative team to look at the precise usage of each and every room."

The hospital, which is likely to have about 100 beds, will be built on part of the huge Ampress site in Southampton Road, Lymington.

It is due to open in May 2006 - six years later than originally planned.

Proposals to replace Lymington's existing hospital and infirmary with a new complex were thrown into turmoil three years ago when a funding deal collapsed.

However, New Forest Primary Care Trust was given the go-ahead last September to seek another private finance partner for the long-awaited project.

Health chiefs are currently comparing the merits of the two contenders.

Kajima Europe built the Berlin Trade Centre and London's Stockley Park, hailed as the most successful and environmentally aware business park in the UK.

Ryhurst Ltd has provided 11 new facilities for the NHS since 1998 and further projects are under construction.