Work is continuing on plans to redevelop Monklands Hospital in North Lanarkshire.

NHS Lanarkshire revealed proposals to create a new multi-million pound hospital at Monklands earlier this year.

Work is underway to develop a business case for submission to the Scottish Government with the local authority.

A consultation, which runs until 01 November, will be used to help create the development.

Preferred options include:

• Continue to maintain the existing hospital buildings

• Partial redevelopment on the existing site - this would include redeveloping some of the existing hospital in addition to adding new buildings to replace some wards and other departments

• Complete redevelopment on the existing site - build a new hospital on the Monklands site to replace most of the existing buildings

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• Complete new build elsewhere in North Lanarkshire - build a new hospital within the Monklands catchment area

Following Scottish Government approval, this will create a 450-500 bed hospital to serve the region over the next 40 years via an investment of around £500 million.

Calum Campbell, chief executive of NHS Lanarkshire, said: "We are committed to working in close partnership with North Lanarkshire Council throughout the process of planning and building a new Monklands Hospital. This includes the production of an Initial Agreement for the development, which we will submit it to the Scottish Government in December this year."

Paul Jukes, chief executive of the council, added: "We have an excellent partnership with NHS Lanarkshire. The plans for Monklands Hospital are hugely ambitious and a whole range of council services need to be closely involved to ensure that those plans are robust.

"We met with NHS Lanarkshire colleagues this week to discuss the ongoing plans and, working together, we all agree on the massive potential an investment of this scale can bring for people across North Lanarkshire."

The complete the consultation questionnaire, visit here.

(LM)