THE new £12 million Rossendale Health Hub is to open a month ahead of schedule.

NHS East Lancashire said work on the state-of-the-art facility had made 'superb progress' despite the bad weather.

The primary care trust will be handed over the centre in Bacup Road, Rawtenstall, on March 15.

Kitting-out the building on the site of the old Tomlinson Shoe Factory, opposite the existing health centre next to Rawtenstall Cricket Ground, will then begin.

Services will be introduced in two major phases, the first during the week beginning March 29 and the second in autumn.

At first services will be transferred across the road from Rawtenstall Health Centre, including the two GP surgeries, the Ilex View Medical Practice and the Fairmore Medical Practice.

The hub will offer new facilities for the treatment room, podiatry, family planning clinics, a pharmacy and well-baby services.

It will accommodate a new ambulance base transferred from the old Rossendale Hospital, GP out-of-hours services and a new purpose-built suite for Rossendale Hospice.

Work on the second phase will start in August.

This will include all the out-patient activities and services currently at the old Rossendale Hospital site, such as physiotherapy and X-ray services, the endoscopy service, facilities to handle rehab for the elderly and Rossendale’s new birthing unit.

Senga Lindsay, project manager, said she was delighted to be moving in early.

She said: “It’s a huge logistical job and has been from the very start but valley residents have played a key part in helping us achieve all this.

"The Rossendale Public Involvement Group has been superb in helping us get the design right and the operational policies worked through. The members are a credit to the valley and we cannot thank them enough.

“The facility will serve the whole of Rossendale and will bring more health service provision into the heart of the valley.

Our aim is to bring services closer to people’s homes. The less people have to travel to the big hospital sites in Burnley, Blackburn, Bury and Rochdale, the better all round.”