An office block and staff car park at Glenfield Hospital are being eyed up as the possible site for six new wards.

Initial documents submitted to Leicester City Council's planning portal suggest that the Ivedene Cottage, to the south of the main hospital car park, could be demolished to make way for more patient bed spaces.

The plan is in its early stages, with the University of Leicester Hospital Trust (UHL) having submitted an application to Leicester City Council this week to see if an environmental impact assessment (EIA) needs to be included when it puts in its bid for permission to build the wards. An EIA sets out whether a proposed project is likely to have significant effects on the environment, and if it does, what can be done to mitigate them.

As such, few details are currently known about the scheme. However, documents suggest there could be 168 new beds created on the site.

These would be used for renal, respiratory and cardiovascular patients and would be a mix of single bedrooms and four-bed "bays".

Details online state two phases of development are planned. Phase one would see the demolition of the office and clearance of the site, including the removal of trees and the block's car park.

A two-storey hospital building would then be erected. This would have two new wards, supporting facilities and a corridor link to the main hospital, the documents suggest.

New internal access roads would also be created in the phase and would run through Glenfield Hospital's main car park, the layout of which would be reconfigured. A full planning application seeking permission for phase one in its entirety is expected to be submitted to the council in due course.

Phase two would see two further two-storey buildings built alongside the phase one building. These would have four wards between them and would again contain supporting facilities and corridor links between the buildings.

An outline planning application is expected to be submitted for this phase of the scheme. Outline applications set out a scheme in principle, with the concrete details to be ironed out through a later secondary application dependant on the "receipt and timing of future Government funding", according to the planning documents.

UHL is one of more than 40 hospital trusts promised a share of more than £20 billion by the Government as part of its Hospital 2.0 programme – also known as the New Hospital programme. The most recent figures suggest UHL is currently set to receive £640 million to regenerate its three hospitals.

A recent application for a new mental health hub at Glenfield Hospital revealed another of the changes set for the site. The Bradgate Mental Health Unit at the hospital is "not suitable for a modern mental health service", a planning application submitted jointly to Blaby District Council and Leicester City Council said.

"Significant issues" with the Bradgate unit cannot be resolved due to the "physical constraints of the buildings", Leicestershire Partnership Trust (LPT) which runs the facility said. The outline application suggests the new hub could feature four adult mental health wards, an "urgent care hub", off-ward therapy spaces and an education and training centre.

If built, it is expected that staff, patients and services at the Bradgate Unit would be moved into the new facility. The Bradgate unit would then be "decommissioned for clinical purposes".

Later phases of planned improvements of the Glenfield Hospital site would seek to demolish the building and redevelop the area. LPT is exploring the option of constructing a permanent pharmacy building there instead, the application states.