Work to create a £6million state-of-the-art medical centre in Ipswich is set to get under way next month, it has been revealed.

East Anglian Daily Times: The former West Villa homeless unit site is to become the new Two Rivers Medical CentreThe former West Villa homeless unit site is to become the new Two Rivers Medical Centre

The new Two Rivers Medical Centre building, which will be on the former West Villa homeless unit in Woodbridge Road East, will serve more than 25,000 patients after construction is completed next year.

It will measure 2,200 sq m and boast 25 consultation and treatment rooms, a minor operations suite, GP training facilities and a pharmacy.

It will bring together the existing Lattice Barn and Woodbridge Road practices, which merged on April 1 to become Two Rivers.

Dr Jonathan Knight, GP Lead for the Two Rivers Medical Centre, said: “Neither of the two existing buildings we currently work from have been fit for purpose for a considerable time.

“We now look forward to moving into a fantastic purpose-built facility from which we can provide a fuller range of primary care services and better serve our patients.”

Dr Mark Shenton, chairman of the Ipswich and East Suffolk Clinical Commissioning Group, added: “It is good news that construction on this important new health facility for Ipswich is set to begin.

“Everyone involved has worked extremely hard to reach this stage of the project and should be congratulated for their commitment.

“Patients deserve access to the best possible healthcare facilities and providing GP services in a modern, state-of-the-art building will serve local people well for many years to come.”

The centre is being delivered by Apollo Capital Projects Development, an Ipswich-based primary care premises developer, and Barnes Construction has been appointed to create the facility.

It is being built on a brownfield site and has been designed so it gains a “BREEAM Excellent” environmental performance rating.

Stuart Clarke, Apollo Development manager, said: “Having reached this important project milestone, we can now look forward to the construction phase of the development with work due to commence on site next month.”

Nick Fayers, managing director at Barnes Construction, added: “As a locally based family business, we are delighted to have been appointed by Apollo to build the new medical centre. It is poignant as a number of our staff are patients of the Two Rivers practice, so they will be particularly interested in the new facilities we are building.”

The work is expected to be completed by next summer.