NHS Lanarkshire officially opened its new Douglas Street Community Health Clinic on Thursday 4 November.
The unveiling of a plague commemorating the opening of the £4.6 million facility was performed by Mrs Neena Mahal, Chair of the NHS Lanarkshire South Community Health Partnership along with Ken Corsar NHS Lanarkshire chair.
Mrs Mahal said: “It was an honour to get the chance to open this wonderful health facility which has been warmly received by the people of Hamilton and surrounding areas.
“For patients and staff, it offers a greatly improved environment that will allow services to modernise and work in new ways that were not possible in the previous, out-dated accommodation which housed the services now here.
“It’s also in a location that is well served by nearby parking and good public transport links.”
NHS Lanarkshire chair, Ken Corsar said: “It’s great to mark the opening of another facility as part of NHS Lanarkshire’s capital development programme.”
The work was undertaken by GRAHAM Construction.
Executive chairman of GRAHAM, Michael Graham said: “We are proud to have been associated with the delivery of the new Douglas Street Community Health Clinic on behalf of NHS Lanarkshire and help provide the local community with a state-of-the-art healthcare facility.”
Background notes to editors
Douglas Street Community Health Clinic is a former social security office.
It has been revamped to provide 2,322 square metres of accommodation over three floors housing a range of primary care services.
The development of the site has allowed NHS Lanarkshire to bring forward plans to provide new community healthcare premises for Hamilton and the surrounding area by up to 10 years.
The first phase of the brand new £4.6 million facility was opened on 20 April 2009 allowing services which had previously been based at Beckford Lodge in Caird Street, to be transferred. These were:
• Community dentistry
• Orthodontics
• Podiatry
• Physiotherapy
• Speech and Language Therapy
• Counselling
• Addiction Services.
The completion of the second phase allowed for services previously provided at the aging Medical Rehabilitation Unit (MRU) in Uddingston to also be moved to Douglas Street. These included:
• Podiatry
• Adult Physiotherapy
• Paediatric Physiotherapy
• Orthotic Clinic
• Wheelchair Clinic
• Bioengineering Clinic (e.g. walking aids)
The new centre became fully operational in March 2010.