Ten GPs at super-surgery

The £1million medical centre is part of the town's multi-million pound Riverside development and comes in the wake of the opening of the formerly rundown area's new housing estate.

Patients from High Street Surgery and Mount Surgery in George Street will use the three-storey, 12,500 sq ft clinic, with ten doctors from the two practices operating there separately when it opens in May.

Derryn Morgan, practice manager at High Street, said: "There is no room at either surgery, so it made sense to do this. We can split the rent and use the extra rooms to introduce extra clinics and services." The project comprises 11 consultation rooms on the ground floor, along with nursing rooms for both practices to manage the most urgent patients and include a treatment room.

Its second floor will house a chronic disease management unit where a variety of regular clinics will be held.

They include clinics for babies, diabetes, heart disease, asthma, sexual health, hormone replacement therapy and well woman.

A third floor will include a library, meeting room, IT equipment and a staff rest room. The scheme is supported by Torfaen county borough council, Gwent Health Authority and Torfaen Local Health Group. Funding to build the centre comes from the Notional Rent Scheme, under which the developers, Matrix Medical, provide the money to build it and continue to own it.

The health authority then pays them rent set by the district valuer. Matrix Medical director Alistair Blacklaws said: "The new medical centre has been designed to cope with the demands now placed upon primary care services and will enable the doctors to provide a more comprehensive service to their patients."

Work on the building is being undertaken by contractors Stradform, whose managing director Nick Chandler said: "We are pleased to be providing such an important community facility and are confident in our ability to complete the work to the high specifications req-uired."