A PROJECT to redevelop 60-year-old wards at the Friarage Hospital in Northallerton could be expanded to a multi-million pound overhaul of the entire site.

Health chiefs at the Northallerton NHS Trust have been in talks over a £3.5m extension to the hospital, aimed at replacing a set of Second World War huts torn down last year. Initial plans had centred on a three-storey building, to include a state of the art children's ward.

But a Government shake-up of the health service means that, from April, the Friarage will be taken over by South Tees NHS Trust, based in Middlesbrough. And the Teesside management team has bigger plans to redevelop the entire hospital.

Architects have already drawn up plans of how the revamped Friarage could look and are consulting clinicians over how to group wards and services. Those set to benefit include the paediatric unit, outpatients, midwifery, gynaecology and the pathology laboratories.

John Gibb, the manager in line to take over the Friarage for South Tees, said: "We are hoping to do a far larger scheme. We are working through operational plans with the clinical team to work out what needs to be replaced and in what priority.

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

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

He warned that the development would not happen overnight. "We have dreamed great dreams," he said. "If it takes us ten years to get there, at least we will know where those buildings are going to go. Depending on the answers we get when we go to seek the money, we will either scale up or down. 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."

The comprehensive plans could give the Friarage an advantage over other trusts when it comes to seeking Government funding for redevelopment.

"We are trying to get people thinking in a more strategic sense. We are simply trying to get ourselves to the stage where we have the plans done and we can look at bidding. If you are in a queuing position, you want to get to the front of the queue."

The architect's final plans are due at the end of March and work on the first stage of the Friarage redevelopment is scheduled for October.

l The Friarage came under fire this week for failing to inform GPs when patients were discharged.

Liaison officer Maria Tate was called before Northallerton and District Community Health Council on Monday to explain errors in the system.

She admitted that "one or two" patients had not been discharged properly from the hospital. "Patients have been discharged without the appropriate care and that does not need to happen," she said.

GPs have complained that the hospital does not inform them early enough of when a patient has been sent home from the hospital, with some only learning of the event by fax after it has happened.

CHC member Ian Mitchelson said: "It seems to me there has been a management failure. This was pointed out to you last year." He said the lack of communication between the parties involved in discharges was like listening to an orchestra of individual soloists rather than an orchestra in concert.

Hospital staff argued that the procedure worked better than in most hospitals, but promised to look at the system again to address the issue