DEMOLITION work has started on one of the oldest hospital buildings still in use in the country.

A ceremonial hammer swing took place at the Royal Sussex County Hospital in Brighton as teams prepared to pull down the Jubilee building.

The building, which took its first patients in 1887, is being destroyed as part of a £480 million redevelopment of the hospital.

The neighbouring Barry building, which is also cramped and no longer suitable for 21st century care, will also be destroyed as part of the scheme.

The design and age of the buildings made it increasingly difficult to provide care to patients and store vital equipment.

The oncology and infectious diseases wards moved out of the Jubilee site last November and into the temporary Courtyard building.

The Courtyard provides three times as much space per patient, plenty of storage, and 18 of the 22 beds are in single ensuite rooms.

The wards will stay in the Courtyard until their accommodation is ready in the redevelopment’s two new, permanent buildings.

Oncology ward junior sister Nicki Colburn exchanged her uniform for protective gear to take the first swing at her department’s old building.

After witnessing how much effort was involved in removing even a small piece of the building by hand, she said: “In one way I am sorry to see it go because there are so many stories linked to it but the age of the building made caring for patients harder.

“If we want new buildings, and I think everyone does, it makes sense to replace the really old ones.”

The Jubilee building will be taken down using a long arm excavator which will remove one level of the building at a time, in small sections.

Its materials will be removed from the hospital in covered containers.

The building, named in honour of Queen Victoria’s Golden Jubilee, is the largest structure to be taken down in preparation for the stage one of the redevelopment.

The demolition will be finished in April this year.

The redevelopment is being funded by the Treasury and expected to be completed by 2023.

As well as a state-of-the-art main building, the Sussex Cancer Centre on the site will also be expanded.

A helipad will be installed on the top of the existing Thomas Kemp Tower to make it quicker and easier to transfer critically ill patients into the accident and emergency department.

There are also plans for an underground car park, which will have more spaces than currently available.