A FORMER pub is to be transformed into a GPs surgery at a cost of £2.3m.

The former Raffles pub in Falsgrave Road, Scarborough, was for many years a Christian Science church and later became a company headquarters.

However, once the building has been transformed, it will become a base for two family doctor surgeries, the Falsgrave and Belvedere practices. They will remain as separate practices.

The head of primary care services with the local primary health care trust, Allan Beaumont, said: "The centre will save some people from having to go to the general hospital as out-patients."

The doctors will be offering a wide range of treatments for patients who would otherwise have had to go to hospital.