FRESH plans for Heatherwood Hospital as part of a £72m demolition and rebuild were unveiled at a public engagement event today.

The proposals put forward by the Frimley Health NHS Foundation Trust would see a new hospital built in woodland on the London Road site and the former hospital demolished and the land sold off to an external developer.

The current hospital would be kept open and operating while the new hospital is being built.

Construction on the new facility would begin in 2017, spanning two years.

The hospital's existing six theatres, 34 in-patient beds and 24 spaces for day cases and endoscopy facilities would be transformed into six operating theatres offering general surgery, plastic surgery, trauma and orthopaedics, 40 beds, eight new private patient spaces, 22 day case spaces and endoscopy facilities.

A total of 50 per cent of beds will be single rooms with en-suite facilities and the rest will be in four-bed bays.

Speaking at the event at Ascot Racecourse, the trust's CEO, Andrew Morris, said a focus will be on orthopaedic work.

He added health chiefs will look to centralise GP practices on the hospital's campus, in an effort to "co-locate primary and secondary care". 

See next week's Bracknell News for more details.