NHS managers have drawn up plans for a £25.6m heart centre at Oxford's John Radcliffe Hospital, which will almost double the number of heart surgery patients admitted every year.

The five-storey building would help cope with an increase in the number of people being treated for heart problems at the Headington-based hospital, which has risen by 34 per cent in the past three years.

At the moment people needing lung surgery are sent to Harefield Hospital, in London, while 27 per cent of children with cardiac problems are sent to the capital's Great Ormond Street Hospital, because the JR is unable to offer them specialised care.

If proposals for the new centre are given the go-ahead, such patients would be able to get treatment in Oxford.

The increased space and specialised services would allow surgeons to do 87 per cent more operations, while doctors could treat 29 per cent more medical patients.

Ailsa Granne, divisional director of the Oxford Radcliffe Hospitals NHS Trust, which runs the JR, said: "This is about increasing capacity to meet national targets. We're seeing a significant increase in our workload, particularly around cardiology." Blueprints for the new centre include an increase in the number of surgical beds from 25 to 53, medical beds from 24 to 44, high dependency beds from 10 to 18, and intensive care beds from two to six.

The expansion will allow surgeons to operate on 1,230 extra patients, on top of the 1,400 people they already see every year.

Cardiologists, who currently treat about 5,815 medical patients annually, would be able to see another 1,720.

In a report to the ORH board, Mrs Granne explained that if the development was not built, other measures would have to be taken to cope with the increase in patients.

Heart centre staff would have to work longer days and weekends in theatre, and patients may have to be sent to smaller hospitals to recover from their treatment, to free up the hospital's specialist beds.

If the proposals are given the go-ahead, the development would be jointly funded by the ORH trust, Oxford University, Thames Valley Health Authority and the Department of Health's National Heart Team.

It would be separate from the JR's new west wing, which is already being built, and would be completed by autumn 2007.

Managers are now drawing up final plans before the project can be approved.