Edwina Hart, Health Minister at the Welsh Assembly, returned to Abergele at the end of February to officially open the towns brand new community health centre.
This visit comes only 13 months after her previous visit to officially mark the start of construction for the new centre. The opening ceremony began with a speech from Ms Hart, followed by the burial of a time capsule filled with important items from local school children and current news articles to be opened in 2060.
The state-of-the-art centre, developed by Primary Asset (a leading provider of innovative premises solutions in primary care) has been caring for patients since January and has been greeted with much enthusiasm throughout the community. After many of years of having to cope with severely outdated and undersized premises, the new facilities provide a modern and much needed space for the doctors and staff to work from.
The new surgery consists of 13 consulting rooms, a treatment room, a minor operation suite and dedicated practice space for other health staff such as district nurses. A new bus stop has been created directly outside of the building to make the new surgery fully accessible to everyone, and parking has already been greatly improved.
Dr Honeybun, head GP at the surgery said:
“It has been a very long road to get here but that is all in the past now and we have gone from quite possibly having the worst primary care building in Wales, to what I have no doubt is the best. Not only is it an attractive and impressive building, but also very flexible and adaptable; with space for expansion in the future so that we can respond to the needs of the community for years to come”
"Many people have helped us along the way but I have to give special mention to our developer, Primary Asset and their regional directors Craig Lord and Ashley Heath. Also Wyn Thomas and John Williams at the local health board, The Abergele Surgery Action Group, who campaigned tirelessly for us, Darren Millar and most of all, Edwina Hart who has worked very hard to overcome the bureaucracy that was standing in our way to get funding approved for the building”
