St Helier Hospital in Sutton will soon be upgraded because of a multi-million pound development.

The £12 million project on B and C blocks will include 133 windows being replaced, the roof repaired and insulated and a new concrete render added to the outside of the building.

Chief executive Daniel Elkeles said: “This is the biggest single improvement project St Helier Hospital has undergone in years, and it’s absolutely fantastic news for our patients, visitors and staff.

“As anyone who has been to St Helier recently will know, some of our walls appear damaged and worn. Obviously, that means St Helier doesn’t look as nice as it could, but more importantly, it means that we are not properly protected from the elements.

“As winter sets in, our hospitals become harder to heat and cost a huge amount of money to keep warm enough for our patients – the new windows, render and roof will mean we can banish the draughts, keep out the damp and stop heat escaping.

"It will mean huge costs savings for us, while at the same time, help to protect the environment and keep everyone in our buildings safe and warm.”

The main construction will begin in the coming weeks and will last for 18 months.

Trevor Fitzgerald, director of estates, facilities and capital projects, said: “We are absolutely delighted to be beginning a project of this size and scale at St Helier, and are looking forward to starting the improvements.

"Before the new waterproof exterior can be installed, the contractors need to put up scaffolding across the two blocks, and begin to inspect the steel infrastructure. This is likely to be one of the noisiest phases of the work, and so we would like to apologise in advance.

“We will make sure work doesn’t start before 8am and will end at 6pm, and will ensure that there at least two hour-long periods every day when noisy work stops.

"We’ll be working with our teams out on the wards and listening to patient feedback to help keep any disruption to a minimum during this essential work.

“This is a huge project, and although it will take a while for work to be completed, the improvements to our buildings will definitely make it worthwhile. This will mark a welcome end to the cracked and peeling B and C blocks, and will give us a rejuvenated St Helier for our patients and staff.”