Surveyors have started work on the £219m redevelopment of St Helier Hospital.

The work is the first practical step in the hospital’s promised redevelopment, that will see almost a third of the current site demolished and replaced with an improved building housing the majority of the hospital’s wards and clinics.

The chartered surveyors have been brought in to first look at where £40m of improvements can be made to the rest of the hospital site.

Epsom and St Helier University Hospitals NHS Trust said over the coming weeks, the surveyors, from Drivers Jonas Deloitte will draw up detailed plans builders will then use to carry out the significant upgrade work.

A spokesperson for the trust said the plans will feature where, when and how the money will be spent, ensuring by the time the redevelopment is complete, each and every part of the site is up to the most modern standards.

Tim Wilkins, the project’s director, said: “It’s fantastic to be taking the first practical steps towards the redevelopment of St Helier Hospital.

“The surveyors will help us understand exactly what work needs doing on the existing hospital to bring it up to today’s very best standards, including refurbishing clinical areas which are not moving into the new building, such as our operating theatres.”

Tim added: “It’s a terrific boost to our patients, visitors and staff to see surveyors in their high-vis jackets walking around the hospital.

"Importantly, this is only the start – in the future people can expect to see much, much more. It won’t be long before the bulldozers, JCBs and diggers arrive.”

The development will see £127m spent on a new hospital building, £40m spent on upgrading the remainder of the site, and £17m spent on a local care centre.

346 beds have been promised, including 50 per cent of patients in single rooms, a purpose-built outpatients department, new pharmacy department, a centralised eye clinic, and a multi-decked car park and improvements to hospital entrances/exits.

For more information about the St Helier Hospital redevelopment, including the latest plans and designs, visit www.epsom-sthelier.nhs.uk/sthelierredevelopment.