A MULTI-MILLION pound overhaul is being considered for one of the region's hospitals.

A set of wooden wards built during the Second World War were torn down by the local health trust last year and a £3.5m three-storey building had been planned to replace them.

However, from next April the Friarage Hospital, in Northallerton, North Yorkshire, will be taken over by the Middlesbrough-based South Tees NHS Trust - and it has more ambitious plans.

It wants to totally revamp the hospital and architects are already drawing up plans of how it could look and are consulting experts over the grouping of wards and services.

The manager in line to take over at the Friarage, John Gibb, said they were hoping to carry out a far larger scheme than originally envisaged and were working with the clinical team to work out what needed to be replaced.

"No matter where you go in the country, hospitals have been built where there has been space and not necessarily logically where you would wish to put things next to each other," he said.

"We have commissioned an architect to give us a whole site plan. Then, knowing the constraints that we do have, we can look at where we would put services together."

Services that are set to benefit under the far-reaching scheme include the paediatric unit, outpatients, midwifery, gynaecology and the pathology laboratories.

However, nothing will be happening overnight and the scheme could take as long as ten years to reach fruition.

"Depending on the answers we get when we go to seek the money, we will either scale up or down," said Mr Gibb.

"We are being ambitious and we accept that - but if we do not go with an ambitious plan, we will end up with the bare minimum."

It is hoped that by drawing up comprehensive plans the trust will have an advantage over others when it comes to seeking Government funds by virtue of being prepared and at the front of the queue.