DOCTORS and health staff are putting the finishing touches to a £4million new one-stop health centre which has changed the face of Woodbridge.The centre is a two-storey building in a prominent position on the Notcutts garden centre site in Ipswich Road and it marks the first phase of a huge redevelopment of the large area of land.

DOCTORS and health staff are putting the finishing touches to a £4million new one-stop health centre which has changed the face of Woodbridge.

The centre is a two-storey building in a prominent position on the Notcutts garden centre site in Ipswich Road and it marks the first phase of a huge redevelopment of the large area of land.

Sheltered housing, a redeveloped garden centre, a public open space and more parking are also in the pipeline.

The surgery from Framfield House, St John's Street, is moving to the health centre. Suffolk Primary Care Trust is moving services from its Pytches Road clinic into the centre as well, and the clinic premises will in future be used by the Little St John's Street practice.

The new centre will include services and clinics including podiatry, physiotherapy, osteopathy, shiatsu, counselling, and a Hearing Care Centre that will ease the pressure on Ipswich Hospital.

Medical students from Cambridge University and hospital registrars will train at the centre and it will be a base for district nurses and health visitors.

The surgery caters for nearly 10,000 patients in a six-mile radius of Woodbridge and has occupied its current site since 1965.

Lorraine Foster, practice manager of Framfield House, said: ''For the vast majority of our patients the new location will be better because otherwise they were having to cross a busy junction in the town.

''The new building is wonderful and I think all the staff are so enthusiastic about working here. The partners were adamant from the word go that they wanted a nice building.

''They live locally and they did not want a big carbuncle here. The wooden cladding on the outside softens the building and I think it is lovely.''

The new building, to be known as Framfield Medical Centre, opens on Monday. The phone number is 01394 615500.