Health chiefs in Liverpool are hoping to move the Women’s Hospital onto the same site as the city’s new Royal hospital.
It is one of four options put forward for the future of the facility in Toxteth as part of a review of women’s and neonatal services in the Merseyside region.
NHS bosses have revealed that their preference would be to move the Women’s into a new hospital building on the site where the new Royal is set to stand.
A bridge would link the two facilities although the possibility of a similar merger on the site of the new Alder Hey Children’s Hospital in West Derby has also been mooted.
The prospect of the current Crown Street site being subject to either widescale or incremental improvements has also not been discounted by health officials.
Andrew Loughney, Medical Director at Liverpool Women’s, said: “Midwives, nurses and doctors at Liverpool Women’s have been central to developing options for the future as part of this review.
“We are confident that the preferred option is best placed to enable us to address the main issues facing our patients.
“Moving to a new purpose built building would mean that we could provide the very best care for future generations of people in Merseyside.”
The future of the Women’s Hospital has been met with strong opposition from campaigners, who fear that the service will be subject to severe cutbacks.
Over 1,000 people marched from Crown Street to the Labour Party conference in September in protest while a further 40,000 signed a petition against the relocation.
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