THE health service will have to contribute up to £10million to improve roads if it wants to build a superhospital in Govan, it was claimed today.

Health managers in Glasgow plan to develop a £550m hospital at the Southern General.

This will involve demolishing and rebuilding most existing buildings in a major expansion, as well as adding a £28m maternity hospital and a £100m replacement for Yorkhill Hospital For Sick Children.

But Alistair Watson, chairman of Strathclyde Partnership for Transport, which is responsible for travel in the area, said the move should only go ahead if a massive upgrade is approved for congested roads in the locality.ertisement

Councillor Watson said: "The new hospital will have a workforce of nearly 10,000 people. In addition, you have to consider how patients, their visitors and others will access the hospital."

Mr Watson said planning approval for the hospital could depend on a "radical" overhaul of local roads, which have become increasingly congested since the opening of the Braehead shopping centre and Xscape entertainment complex.

He added: "That is something we will be looking at when the planning application goes in."

Mr Watson and SPT chief executive Ron Culley have held meetings with health board boss Tom Divers to look at transport to all the city's hospitals.

Under plans passed by the health board in 2002, Gartnavel General, the Southern and Glasgow Royal Infirmary will be expanded.

The board's transport strategy has confirmed it could subsidise buses to help people from outlying areas get to and from the hospitals.

A spokeswoman for NHS Greater Glasgow and Clyde, said: "We are working with colleagues at SPT and the council on transport issues around the Southern campus.

"As part of our planning application we would incorporate funding for road infrastructure."