IT'S THE size of three football pitches with 140 new beds, 15 new birth suites and more than 240 new visitor parking spaces.

Welcome to your new Royal Bournemouth Hospital.

The plans and final details for the new building and facilities are being officially unveiled next week.

However, the Echo understands that the new building will be constructed at the front of the existing hospital site, just off Castle Lane East.

In a document seen by this newspaper, the hospital says it believes: "The site's largely two-story density offers unique constraints and opportunities to design a hospital extension that complements and expands upon the existing building's design whilst creating the desired amount of new accommodation."

In addition to the facilities listed above, the hospital is expected to accommodate an as-yet undisclosed increase in staff and a 65 per cent expansion in the accident and emergency department.

The hospital, which is 30 years old this year, is expected to get a new main entrance with an 'integrated retail area', new women's and children's departments including Paediatric and Maternity, new ambulance parking bays and a multi-story car-park as well as facilities for cycle commuters.

The Echo understands that: 'an understanding of the local area, including the building's content, site's history and importance to the community will be a key driver in defining how the new extension takes form.' The hospital is understood to be keen to engage the public and staff to help shape the project's details.

The new hospital block and expansion is part of the £147 million investment into local health services that runs alongside the proposals to turn Bournemouth into the main Emergency Department for East Dorset, with planned care moving to Poole.

As part of the planned overhaul of the NHS in Dorset, it is proposed that the emergency department in Poole will become an urgent treatment centre in 2023, with a more specialised Emergency Department developed in Bournemouth, which has the advantage of a heli-pad, to cope with severe conditions. Bournemouth will also have its own urgent treatment centre which reflects new NHS thinking that Emergency Departments will only treat the most serious medical situations.

To launch its new plans and answer questions from staff and NHS users, both hospitals are holding public meetings next week. On Wednesday June 5 there will be a display and experts on hand to answer questions in the Atrium at RBH between 10am and 7pm. The day after it's Poole's turn, with a session at the hospital's Dolphin Restaurant during the same hours.

New of the new facilities comes at a time of increasing stress on local NHS services.

Earlier this week it was revealed that Poole Hospital is spending £8 million a year on agency workers to plug a staffing shortage.

And the annual plan, published ahead of the board meeting of the Poole trust on Wednesday, speaks of “significant” pressures facing the hospitals.

“Capacity at the trust is particularly challenged given its financial position and the stop-start nature of the plans to merge with RBCH,” it said.