Plans were due to be discussed on Thursday about the future of Papworth Hospital.

The specialist heart and lung hospital near Huntingdon is the country's main heart and lung centre.

It also serves the 2.5 million people living in Cambridgeshire, Norfolk, Suffolk and mid and north Bedfordshire.

The 250-bed hospital has 1,000 staff and treats more than 20,000 patients each year.

The plans for a move to the Cambridge Bio-Medical Campus next to Addenbrooke's Hospital will be discussed at a meeting of the Norfolk, Suffolk and Cambridgeshire Strategic Health Authority .

The move would be part of a long-term strategy to turn the Addenbrooke's site into a world-class centre for the 21st century. The unit would remain independent of Addenbrooke's.

It was first proposed in the Addenbrooke's Site Development Plan in the autumn of 1999.

The development plan was put together by the Addenbrooke's NHS Trust board in partnership with Cambridge University, the Medical Research Council and local health authorities.

It was designed to help cope with a predicted 120,000 increase in the population in and around Cambridge by 2020.