Sarah Brealey Plans for the redevelopment of the region's specialist heart hospital have taken a step forward.The NHS East of England board approved the plans for the £204m move and redevelopment of Papworth Hospital.

Sarah Brealey

Plans for the redevelopment of the region's specialist heart hospital have taken a step forward.

The NHS East of England board approved the plans for the £204m move and redevelopment of Pap-worth Hospital. It will move next to Addenbrooke's Hospital, Cambridge.

Papworth is the country's largest specialist heart and chest hospital.

The new hospital is expected to open in 2013.

Patients are being promised benefits from the two hospitals being next to each other, such as reduced need to be transferred between two sites for surgery and integrated trauma and emergency services, and cardiac surgery will be carried out on a single site, improving treatment for heart attack patients.

There will also be more modern facilities and more opportunities for research.

Also on the site will be the University of Cambridge School of Clinical Medicine and research organisations.

The plans will now go forward to the next stage of the approval process.