GENERAL anaesthetic and day surgeries made a welcome return to Andover War Memorial Hospital for hand, knee and foot operations in January.

Juanita Knowles, clinical manager of Andover day surgery, praised Winchester and Eastleigh Healthcare NHS Trust at its annual meeting for investing a large sum of money into the hospital.

She was particularly keen to praise the huge investment in endoscopy procedures which allow internal organs to be examined through a tube and then viewed on an external monitor.

"We're very pleased general anaesthetic has come back to Andover," she said at the annual meeting in Andover Guildhall.

"The trust has made huge investment in our day surgery unit particularly the endoscopy side of things.

"Each endoscopy unit costs £30,000 and the trust is aiming to buy six of them.

"Each one also needs essential equipment alongside."

She said endoscopy procedures have been temporarily suspended at Andover and transferred to Winchester.

But she hopes with the new equipment being bought the service will resume in Andover at the end of the year or perhaps a little bit sooner.

When it returns she hopes to increase the endoscopy sessions to at least one a day.

"We did 750 last year on average and we hope to more than double that in forthcoming years," she said.

"We are absolutely delighted that we have a new chief executive who has obviously seen the potential in Andover and has invested in our services and in our future."