MANAGEMENT at the Purey Cust Nuffield Hospital have spoken out to reassure patients and staff that the move to new premises will not affect services or jobs.

It was also revealed that the new hospital was unlikely to be in the city centre. It could be on the outer ring road, possibly to the north of York.

Hospital manager Steve Greatorex said the new, bigger private hospital, which it hoped will be ready by April 2004, will offer better facilities and provide more jobs.

He said: "We want to reassure people, both patients and our staff, that our services will continue as normal and nothing is going to change for some time.

"We are looking towards the future and expanding our hospital. We will be providing a bigger, more modern hospital for more patients and a better and wider range of services and facilities."

There is the possibility that the new hospital could include NHS facilities or services.

The current hospital, situated in Precentor Court in the shadow of York Minster, opened as a nursing home at the start of the First World War.

The building is owned by the Purey Cust Trust and was taken over in its current form in 1984 by Nuffield - Britain's biggest charitable healthcare provider.

Nuffield is now moving the hospital in a multi-million pound investment - but says it is still unable to say what will happen to the current building. Possibilities include it being used as an annexe for the new hospital or closure.

The new hospital is expected to be on a green field site on the edge of the York ring road, probably to the north of the city.

Mr Greatorex added: "We have estate agents looking at sites and we expect it will not actually be in the city centre. Many of our patients drive to the hospital and a city centre site is not the most ideal for those circumstances."

Updated: 11:13 Friday, November 02, 2001