A proposed merger involving Epsom Hospital has moved closer to becoming a reality.

The Dorking Road facility is currently run by Epsom and St Helier University Hospitals NHS Trust, which also manages St Helier and Sutton Hospitals.

In December 2010, the trust’s board agreed that it was unable to achieve foundation status in its current form.

A special Transaction Board was set up last February to explore and, once agreed, implement alternative options.

The trust said that this was likely to see Epsom, St Helier and Sutton Hospitals demerged and then remerged with others.

An official notice inviting NHS organisations that may be interested in merging with the hospitals to come forward was then published.

Ashford and St Peter’s Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust submitted a formal tender to merge with Epsom Hospital in November.

St George’s Healthcare NHS Trust did the same for St Helier and Sutton hospitals.

Since then, five specialist panels have assessed the bids against a range of criteria.

Epsom and St Helier University Hospitals NHS Trust has now announced that both tenders have met the criteria expected of them.

The trust added that the five panels presented their findings to two special committees and that the feedback from both was positive.

“Over the coming weeks, the bids - and the assessment undertaken by the five specialist panels - will be presented to the trust board and Transaction Board, before going to our strategic authority, NHS London, for sign off,” said a trust statement.

“Once this has been completed - which we anticipate to be in March - we will be able to announce if the two trusts have been selected as preferred bidders.

“If this is the case, we can then move to the next phase of the project, which will be to prepare for the de-merger of our trust and re-merging Epsom and St Helier and Sutton with their new partners.”

The newly-merged trusts are expected to start running from January 1 next year.