Doctors have paid a visit to the site of a £21m project to build a new local care centre.

Work at the former Nelson hospital sitem in Kingston Road, Wimbledon, is now well underway with 220 tonnes of steel, 3,500 cubic metres of concrete and 35,000 man hours having gone into creating the building's framework.

The project includes the construction of a new local care centre part funded by the sale of an adjacent car park where McCarthy and Stone are set to build a three storey retirement home for 51 residents.

Set to open in 2015, the local care centre will house two GP practices with Cannon Hill Lane and Church Lane due to move into the centre as part of NHS south west London's Better Healthcare Closer to Home initiative.

Eleanor Brown, chief officer of Merton Clinical Commissioning Group, said: "It is difficult to appreciate just how impressive the new facility will be when viewing it from Kingston Road, but when you are on site it really comes to life.

"Having a walk through and being shown where the physiotherapy rooms or a treatment room will be was great."

She added: "When complete the new facility will provide 5,600sq m of useable space.

"While this is the same as the combined space of numerous villas that made up the Nelson Hospital, the new building provides a new service configuration to deliver 21st-century healthcare designed around the needs of local people.

"It will be a modern, purpose-designed healthcare facility which will enable the delivering of integrated health services, treating people wherever possible close to where they live."

 

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