Health Minister marks start of construction on £6m Two Rivers Medical Centre in Ipswich
Ben Gummer, MP for Ipswich and Parliamentary Under Secretary of State for Health, visited the future site of the new Two Rivers Medical Centre in North East Ipswich on Friday, 26 June to mark the start of construction on the £6 million state-of-the-art medical centre in Woodbridge Road East.
Ipswich-based primary care premises developer Apollo Capital Projects Development is delivering the new 2,200 sq m medical facility, which brings together the recently merged Lattice Barn and Woodbridge Road surgeries which had outgrown their old premises. Two Rivers Medical Centre will provide a mix of 25 consultation and treatment rooms, including a minor operations suite, specialist GP training facilities, and an on-site retail pharmacy. The new facility will serve over 25,000 patients in North East Ipswich and the surrounding catchment areas.
At the ground-breaking ceremony, the Junior Minister for Health, Ben Gummer said: “I am delighted that the GPs, practice nurses and staff of Lattice Barn and Woodbridge Road surgeries will soon have a fantastic new centre from which to serve patients. This is an important day: together with local GPs, I fought hard to get the money for this innovative scheme and I know that it will help them deliver an even better service. When completed, this state-of-the-art new medical centre will provide patients in North East Ipswich with a range of integrated services under one roof.”
Apollo is working with the Two Rivers Medical Centre, the NHS Ipswich and East Suffolk Clinical Commissioning Group, Ipswich Borough Council, local contractors Barnes Construction and KLH Architects to deliver the long-awaited new facility that is being built on land purchased from Ipswich District Council that formerly housed their West Villa homeless unit.
Stuart Clarke, Apollo Development Manager said: “As the developers of this primary care scheme, we have worked in partnership with the doctors for a number of years and we are excited to see the construction phase of the project finally underway and for the Practice to achieve its aim of relocating to new purpose-built premises. This is going to be a fantastic new medical centre and community facility for the town which will significantly improve the level of patient care in the area and enable the Two Rivers Medical Centre GP team to provide a wider and more patient-focused range of services to the community for many years to come. We hope to build upon this success by working with other GP practices which are in need of new premises.”
Dr. Jonathan Knight, one of the GPs from the Two Rivers Medical Centre, commented: “It has taken many years of hard work for us to get to this point. We are grateful to all the individuals from many different organisations who have supported this project: Apollo Medical, KLH Architects and Barnes Construction are all locally based companies and are involved in the building development, but our thanks, too, to others who have helped bring this development to the start line: Ipswich Borough Council, our local Ipswich CCG and NHS England at Regional level, and our local MP, Ben Gummer. The ultimate beneficiaries of this project will be the 25,000 patients we serve and the local community within which we work. Our staff and patients must be given huge credit for managing with sub-standard facilities for so many years; now we are close to realising a 21st century facility from which we can provide care for generations to come.” Maddie Baker-Woods, chief operating officer, NHS Ipswich and East Suffolk Clinical Commissioning Group said: “Everyone involved in this project has worked extremely hard and it is fantastic that construction work is set to begin. The Two Rivers Medical Centre will enable local people to access healthcare and GP services in a modern building that is fit for 21st century needs. It will serve the community well for many years to come.”
Nick Fayers, Managing Director at Barnes Construction commented: “As a locally based family building company, we are delighted to have been awarded the contract to construct this brand new medical centre. Over the years, Barnes has developed a strong portfolio of successfully completed projects within the healthcare sector. This has ranged from a number of contracts for Ipswich and West Suffolk Hospitals, and the building of Framfield Medical Centre in Woodbridge to the award winning new EACH Hospice in Ipswich.”
The project is due for completion in July 2016.
Photo provided by P Nixon Photography
