Golden Jubilee National Hospital in Clydebank is discussing the proposals with two local health boards.

The former private hospital was bought by the Scottish Executive last year for �37.5m.

Earlier this month it emerged that the cardiac unit was being under-used at a time when 500 people were waiting for heart surgery.

Plans to re-site adult cardiothoracic surgery services at Glasgow Royal Infirmary and the Western Infirmary at Gartnavel General Hospital site by 2012 exist as part of the Glasgow Acute Services Review.

These proposals should be seen as an opportunity to create one of the largest surgical centres in the UK dedicated to the treatment of patients with lung cancer and oesophageal cancer as well as other chest conditions Dhru Prakash Consultant thoracic surgeon

Under the new option, the single site service for the west of Scotland could be brought forward earlier by the use of facilities at Golden Jubilee National Hospital (GJNH).

Thoracic surgical services currently provided at Hairmyres Hospital in Lanarkshire also form part of the talks.

The options for the hospital are being discussed by NHS Greater Glasgow, NHS Lanarkshire and GJNH.

GJNH chief executive Ian McAdam said discussions were at "a very early stage".

Mr McAdam said: "Golden Jubilee National Hospital is a purpose-built tertiary care facility originally designed to provide high-quality cardiac surgery, which could possibly provide the appropriate infrastructure and capacity requirements to support such a proposal."

Consultation process

NHS Greater Glasgow and NHS Lanarkshire said they were pleased to be working with the hospital to explore the option.

The boards said discussions were considering the feasibility of establishing a west of Scotland adult inpatient cardiothoracic service at the hospital while continuing to provide existing locally accessible cardiothoracic and thoracic outpatient services at Greater Glasgow and Lanarkshire hospitals.

A re-organisation of surgery is under way

Mr Dhru Prakash, consultant thoracic surgeon at Hairmyres Hospital, said: "These proposals should be seen as an opportunity to create one of the largest surgical centres in the UK dedicated to the treatment of patients with lung cancer and oesophageal cancer as well as other chest conditions.

"There would be access to the latest diagnostic and treatment techniques."

Joint working groups, with staff and patient involvement, are being established to explore the various complex aspects of the proposal.

This is expected to take six months to develop in full.