PLANS could see £16m ploughed into transforming Worcester's much-criticised and "old fashioned" Newtown Hospital into a state-of-the-art "centrepiece".

The proposals would see parts of the building, in Newtown Road, demolished and rebuilt with the rest of the hospital extended or modified - bringing inpatient care for mental health sufferers across Worcestershire into the 21st Century.

The scheme would be developed over five years, and would be made up of three main sections, including an Acute Central Inpatient Unit, a High Dependency Unit, 70 beds, 15 of which would be single en-suite rooms, and single sex wards.

"The idea is to bring together all the acute services, for seriously-ill patients, under one roof instead of being spread out across the county," said Ian McCarley, finance and information director for Worcestershire Mental Health Partnership NHS Trust.

"Our existing buildings are old fashioned and not fit for modern services.

"The new building will be built to current guidelines, grouping patients together by their conditions to meet their requirements.

"Currently in Worcester we can find someone who is very unwell on the same unit as someone who is almost well, and that doesn't do either of them any good."

Trust Chairman John Calvert said the development would be the mental health version of the two-year-old Worcestershire Royal Hospital.

"It will be something we've never had before and something I'm sure we will be proud of," he said.

"It's going to be the centrepiece of Worcestershire's mental health services."

A draft business plan has been compiled and drawings of what it would look like will be produced when funding, which would be through the NHS and not with the help of private companies, is given the green light, which is expected in February.

It is hoped builders would move onto the site by the end of next year.

The news comes after the Evening News revealed in March that a scathing report listed a catalogue of shortfalls at Worcestershire's psychiatric hospitals, including Newtown.

The report called for the removal of hooks that patients could use to commit suicide and noted a lack of single rooms and single sex wards was failing to meet patients' needs.

In July, the trust received a zero-star performance rating - the lowest possible rating, and was one of just seven mental health trusts in England not to be awarded a solitary star.