A NEW state-of-the-art healthcare centre is set to open its doors after a year long delay.

More than 24,000 patients will be served by the modern Altrincham Health and Wellbeing Centre after two other health hubs move their operations onto the first floor this Autumn.

St Johns Medical Centre and Barrington Medical Centre will be provided with more than double the space they currently occupy and will benefit from free onsite parking and enhanced disability access when the move is complete.

Martyn Pritchard, accountable officer at NHS Trafford Clinical Commissioning Group, said: “The decisions of the past surrounding the Altrincham Health and Wellbeing Centre have been well documented, but going forward our priority is to provide residents with high quality healthcare services from the centre that meet their needs.

“That’s why I am delighted that thousands of patients will now be able to benefit from this purpose built state-of-the-art healthcare facility. We also hope to be in a position soon to announce that more healthcare services will be moving into the building.”

Mr Pritchard was joined by Dr Marik Sangha, GP Partner at St Johns, and Dr Nick Macdonald GP Partner from Barrington Medical Centre, who both welcomed the news.

Dr Sangha said: "This is an exciting new chapter: we can continue to provide first-class care for our patients, provide improved parking and treatment facilities and enable the practice to expand into areas such as clinical research and training.

"St Johns was founded 50 years ago and has now outgrown the original site. Larger premises with modern facilities for staff and patients are vital as the practice looks to the future.”

Dr Macdonald added: “We are excited to move into this new purpose built modern building where we can continue to deliver holistic family medicine with continuity of care. This new state-of-the -art environment will be beneficial for patients and staff as we develop our services in line with modern primary care.”

A letter and leaflet outlining the upcoming changes has been sent to patients’ this week.