A £20 million project will see old boilers replaced at St Helier Hospital in a bid to make it more environmentally friendly.  

It is expected to slash energy bills by about £670,000 at both the hospital in Sutton and Epsom Hospital, which is part of the same trust.

The Epsom and St Helier Hospital Trust will replace the six steam boilers that currently power the hospitals, some date back to the 1930s and require 24/7 maintenance support.

There will also be new lighting installed and new heating for the wards and departments.

Epsom and St Helier's director of estates Trevor Fitzgerald said it is the biggest investment ever made into energy efficiency at the two hospitals.

He said: “As an organisation that operates 24 hours a day and 365 days a year, we absolutely recognise our duty to protect the environment and use the energy that we rely on as efficiently as possible. We have been caring for people for generations – it’s time that we take extra care of the environment too.”

He added that the overall environment in the hospital will be improved, too, with new lighting and heating systems installed.

The project is set to be completed at St Helier by the end of 2020 and has already seen more than 4,000 lighting fixtures replaced with LEDs.

And old air conditioning units in critical areas of the hospital, like the intensive care unit, are also being replaced.

“This project is a huge undertaking, as at St Helier alone we will be replacing three huge 12-tonne steam boilers with brand new, six megawatt, high efficiency, low temperature hot water boilers, with a further three to follow at Epsom,” Mr Fitzgerald added.

And it will be a challenge as old boilers at St Helier will need to be taken out piece by piece from the basement of the hospital’s D block.

This will involve taking down walls and using specialist lifting equipment.