Work to demolish buildings on the site of the Royal Shrewsbury Hospital to make way for new accommodation blocks for trainee doctors and their families will begin next week.

The scheme, which involves demolishing the buildings and replacing them with modern, family-friendly homes and accommodation for doctors in training, is due to begin on Monday.

The first phase of the work involves taking down blocks five and six, near to the main staff car park.

Private accommodation for open market sale is due to be included in future phases of the development.

The site currently contains mainly single-person apartments built in the 1970s and 1980s, which hospital bosses claim fail to provide “decent habitable accommodation” or an appropriate setting for families and hospital staff.

Designs for the new site will provide clear boundaries between private and public areas, a variety of spaces with carefully planned car parking and public spaces.

Chris Needham, head of estates at the Shrewsbury and Telford Hospital NHS Trust, said: “This is a landmark development for the trust and the community.

“Much time and effort has been spent carefully developing and designing a high quality scheme to meet the accommodation needs of both our doctors in training and all our other residents.

“The first block of apartments will be ready for occupation in August 2009 and the whole development will be completed by December 2010.”

The Shrewsbury and Telford Hospital NHS is aiming to keep all disruption caused by the works to a minimum and apologises for any inconvenience caused while the works are carried out.