AFTER having £1.76 million spent on it, Felixstowe's hospital will re-open later this month with a new look - and a new name.It will no longer be known as the General, and in future will be Felixstowe Community Hospital.

AFTER having £1.76 million spent on it, Felixstowe's hospital will re-open later this month with a new look - and a new name.

It will no longer be known as the General, and in future will be Felixstowe Community Hospital.

The minor injuries unit also has a new name - the Croydon Unit, dedicated to Charles Croydon, the man who built the cottage hospital early in the last century.

Now the hospital in Cobbold Road has been catapulted into the 21st and is ready to provide the seaside town and its surrounding communities with an up-dated and quality healthcare service. The

The refurbishment project is now complete and clinics and services will be transferred over the next few days, opening in phases.

From January 28 at 9am the day and treatment team will open, followed by physiotherapists' outpatients' department on January 29 from 8am.

At 7am on January 30 the minor injuries unit will open along with inpatients.

All these services have been temporarily housed in the Bartlet Hospital, which will shut on January 31. There will be an official opening of the new Felixstowe Community Hospital on February 1.

Chief executive of Suffolk Primary Care Trust, Carole Taylor-Brown, said: “Felixstowe Community Hospital will become the heart of healthcare services for the town and its surrounding villages.

“We are really pleased that we can finally bring a large portion of our extended services for the area under one roof in an updated centre.”

The hospital will house a range of services - minor injuries unit, better x-ray facilities and 16 in-patient beds - and provide the base for the local healthcare team of district nurses, occupational therapists and physiotherapists.

There is also a reception, a new dining area and a single storey dayroom, as well has improved disabled facilities, including toilets and showers and bathrooms.

Work on decorating a children's centre - paid for thanks to a successful Evening Star appeal - with colourful murals, based on ideas from schoolchildren, is under way.

Builders R G Carter carried out the work over ten months, making structural changes such as adding extensions and putting in a lift to open up the use of the first floor.

Do you think changing the hospital's name is a good move - or should the PCT have stuck with tradition? Write to Your Letters, Evening Star, 30 Lower Brook Street, Ipswich, IP4 1AN, or e-mail EveningStarLetters@eveningstar.co.uk