A SPECIAL planning meeting is to be held to discuss the Royal National Orthopaedic Hospital's rebuild plans.

Harrow Council's planning committee will meet at Harrow Civic Centre, Station Road, Harrow, on Thursday, March 21, at 7.30pm to debate and decide upon the hospital trust's planning application submitted in December.

The trust's chief executive Rob Hurd said: “Without this development, the future of the Stanmore hospital is at risk, with serious consequences for thousands of patients.”

Plans for the £98million Private Finance Initiative rebuild of the specialist neuro-musculoskeletal hospital in Brockley Hill, Stanmore, include a new outpatients’ department, spinal cord injury centre, special accommodation unit for parents, rehabilitation centre and 805-space multi-storey car park immediately outside the main hospital block.

Land in the eastern and western portions of the site will be sold for 347 houses and flats to allow the trust to reduce its borrowing costs.

If approved, the project will begin around April 2016 and will take 12 years to finish. The Aspire National Training Centre and the connected Mike Heaffey Centre, run as a single rehabilitation centre for people with spinal injuries by the Aspire charity, will remain.

Princess Eugenie, who received treatment for curvature of the spine at the hospital, is patron of an appeal to fundraise £15million to equip the hospital and to build Princess Eugenie House, a replacement accommodation unit where patients' parents can stay, and which will replace the Graham Hill Unit.