WORK on a £2.3million extension to the maternity unit at Salisbury District Hospital may be delayed due to funding constraints.

Plans for the two-storey building were given permission in June 2016, with construction work having been forecast to begin later this year.

But the hospital is now considering postponing the work.

Speaking at a Salisbury NHS Foundation Trust board meeting earlier this month, finance director Malcolm Cassells said: “We are going to have to look at the program again because the limited amount of capital that we’ve got means we are going to have to prioritise what we can and can’t do.

"It’s looking very tight so we are talking about making decisions which ideally wouldn’t be ones we want to make.”

The maternity services undertake about 2,500 deliveries a year and this is expected to increase to 3,000 by 2020 as thousands of soldiers and their families are re-based from Germany to Salisbury Plain over the next two to three years.

Mr Cassells told board members: “At the moment we don’t have enough facts about the actual volumes of patients that would be needing that facility.

“And there’s half a million already to find in the programme for next [financial] year which may or may not happen.”

The building will involve three new birthing suites, ancillary accommodation, admin offices and a link to the existing maternity building.

The hospital is also hoping to create a new medical ward to cope with increasing demand.

Mr Cassells said: “The aspiration for a new ward remains and it’s quite an urgent one given some of the problems we’ve been having.

"The view at the finance committee was it was supported in principle – the question is can we take enough out of the capital programme to be able to allow that to happen.”