The construction of a new £10million health centre in west Suffolk is on schedule to be completed by autumn next year.

The NHS West Suffolk Clinical Commissioning Group (CCG) project in Church Field Road, Sudbury, is set to deliver new state-of-the-art health facilities to the area.

The purpose-built centre will replace current outdated facilities at Walnuttree Hospital, St Leonard’s Hospital, Acton Lane Clinic and the Siam GP surgery.

Yesterday, local people were given a tour of the site to see the progress that has been made.

Site manager, Tony Wortley, said: “The steel frame of the building is all completed, which gives us an idea of the scale.

“Externally, we are progressing well with the car park area and we are now getting on with the roof. We should have 60% of the external walls up to a waterproof level by Christmas.”

When complete, the health centre will house paediatrics, dermatology, audiology, gynaecology and rheumatology departments.

Patients will also be able to have X-rays and blood tests at the centre and there will be an MRI scanner on the premises. Anne Nicholls, chairman of Sudbury and locality community reference group, which has been advising health bosses on the project, said: “I was a consultant at West Suffolk Hospital in 1973 when I was first told there would be a new hospital in Sudbury so it’s very exciting to see the building progressing, particularly having waited for such a long time for it.”

Chilton Parish Council chairman, Peter Clifford, who is also a Sudbury hospital WATCH group member, added: “I am really pleased to see it so well advanced and on schedule. You can now start to visualise all the great health facilities it will bring to Sudbury.”

Andrew Eley, deputy chief operating officer for West Suffolk CCG, said: “We know that seeing the building take shape is a huge relief for local people who have waited so long for this to turn from vision to reality.”