Leicester Royal Infirmary demolition work begins

The new building has been designed with the help of staff

Demolition work has started at a Leicester hospital as part of a major rebuilding project.

Leicester Royal Infirmary's current A&E was designed to see 100,000 patients a year but gets about 160,000 and has struggled to meet waiting time targets.

A new £43m "emergency floor", including assessment wards and scanning facilities, is due to begin a phased opening in late 2016.

The trust has 12,000 staff and sees more than one million patients a year.

John Adler, chief executive of University Hospitals of Leicester NHS Trust, said: "It is tremendously exciting and that is because it has been a long time coming, it has taken a lot of careful planning.

"It is a tangible sign we are making progress in bringing state of the art facilities to Leicester."

Preliminary work is also under way on a new multi-story car park, following years of complaints about delays and congestion.