Queen Elizabeth Hospital: First stage of crumbling hospital rebuild begins

Demolition has started on the Queen Elizabeth Hospital's Inspire Centre to make way for a multi-storey car park

The first stage of a plan to redevelop a crumbling hospital has begun.

Demolition has started on Queen Elizabeth Hospital's Inspire Centre in King's Lynn, Norfolk, to make way for a multi-storey car park.

A new hospital is then due to be created on the site's existing parking area.

The hospital, which has large areas held up by hundreds of temporary props, is due to be rebuilt as part of the government's New Hospital Programme.

Estates manager Paul Brooks said it was an "exciting" day for the Queen Elizabeth Hospital (QEH).

"If you think about setting a set of dominoes off to start a chain reaction, that's exactly what we're doing with the Inspire Centre," he said.

"It's been such a huge part of the QEH's life as well - it's been used as a community centre, a vaccination centre, and it's quite poignant that that building will kick off the new build of the new hospital."

Plans for the multi-storey car park were approved by the Borough Council of King's Lynn and West Norfolk in April.

It is being built in two phases - the first, to provide 500 parking spaces, and the second, to create a further 879 spaces.

Estates manager Paul Brooks said it was an "exciting" day

The QEH opened in 1980 and was made from prefabricated concrete planks with an expected working life of 30 years.

The material is now failing and 56 areas of the buildings are being held up by more than 4,000 steel and wooden props.

The multi-storey car park forms part of a plan to free up space for a new hospital

More than 4,300 props are now in place across the hospital site

The Queen Elizabeth was among five hospitals to be added to the government's New Hospital Programme last month.

The £20bn scheme aims to rebuild those hospitals by 2030.