LONG-AWAITED building work is set to begin on a new £30m hospital and health centre.

The Department of Health has given the green light to Ryhurst and Sir Robert McAlpine to build the facility on West Dyke Road, in Redcar.

Work is due to begin within three weeks, it is expected to be completed in November 2009 and open to patients in January 2010.

The facility will provide services currently run in Stead Primary Care Hospital (PCH), in Kirkleatham Street, as well as accommodate the four GP practices currently housed in Redcar Health Centre, on Coatham Road.

Additional services will also be located in the new facility, including an outpatient department, day theatre and endoscopy, a minor injuries unit, an X-Ray and ultrasound department, a physiotherapy and hydrotherapy department and a day hospital.

The current Stead PCH is three Victorian houses linked together by prefabricated corridors, deemed unfit for delivering 21st century healthcare.

Redcar Health Centre was not designed to take the number of patients it does today.

Colin McLeod, chief executive of Redcar and Cleveland PCT, said: "This is superb news for people living in the Redcar area and the culmination of six years hard work by PCT staff and colleagues.

"This exciting new development will provide an expanded range of high quality services from a state of the art facility to thousands of patients."

Mark Adams, project director for Redcar and Cleveland PCT, added: "I'm delighted that we have reached this point.

"It has taken a great deal of effort and commitment from many people within the PCT and the consortium to get us to this stage.

"We will continue working together to ensure that we are able to deliver world class services from world class facilities in Redcar and Cleveland."