WORK is well under way to transform a former chocolate factory canteen into a new private hospital for York.

Construction teams, led by the Shepherd Building Group, have moved on to the former Nestl canteen and shop site off Haxby Road, and are currently stripping the interior of the building in order to create a specially-designed Nuffield Hospital.

The hospital is due to be completed in the autumn of 2004, at which point services will transfer from the Purey Cust Hospital, next to York Minster, to the Haxby Road site.

The new hospital, which will continue to carry out a range of NHS work for York Hospital, will have an extra operating theatre, nine extra bedrooms, two extra physiotherapy rooms and a new gymnasium, ten extra consulting and treatment rooms, and a new mammography unit so breast screening can take place. Talks have been held with NHS bosses in the city to discuss the role the new hospital will play in treating NHS patients, but nothing has been finalised.

Clinical project manager Sally Brown said work was progressing well on the site, and in the meantime it was business as usual at the Purey Cust.

Sally said: "Because it's a conversion and not a new building it won't look particularly different from the outside.

"They are currently stripping out the inside and they will probably start construction in the late summer or September.

"The hospital team has been involved since last October with the design of the building, from theatre nurses to consultants to housekeeping staff, so the hospital will suit everybody's needs.

"The main thing is we are still working at the Purey Cust, we are still open and we will maintain the same standards. We are still investing in this place. Work will not stop because we are on the move."

Other changes on the Haxby Road site will include the new entrance, which will be off the main road at the side of the building.

A drop-off area is being created, which means the removal of a tree planted to commemorate the Coronation. A new tree will be planted elsewhere.

The relocation is planned to take place over a three-day period. It is not yet known what will happen to the Purey Cust Hospital building, which is owned by the Purey Cust Trust.

Updated: 08:41 Tuesday, July 01, 2003