PATIENTS attending Tavistock Clinic will soon be greeted by bright, modern facilities as a major £250,000 refurbishment of the building and its facilities gets underway.

The three-month refurbishment started on March 18 and the clinic's services will be temporarily relocated to other nearby facilities at Tavistock Community Hospital or Tavistock Training Base at Spring Hill to ensure minimum disruption to patients and the clinic's services.

Torbay and Southern Devon Health and Care NHS Trust, which runs the clinic, is undertaking the revamp — totalling in excess of £250,000 — to modernise the clinic's facilities.

Tavistock Community Hospital's League of Friends has also generously donated £15,000 towards the scheme.

Improvements to be carried out as part of the refurbishment include a new, dedicated area for chemotherapy services along with the Triangle Centre which provides information, support, counselling and complementary therapies to cancer patients and their carers.

There will also be an enhanced dental space and podiatry area, structural works to enlarge several rooms as well as general redecoration of the facilities.

Susan Wilkin, business manager for Tavistock Clinic, said: 'We are delighted to be undertaking a refurbishment of the clinic and we're sure that, once complete, our patients will be impressed by the transformation.

'We would, however, like to apologise for any inconvenience caused during the works and reassure our patients that we are working hard to ensure that any disruption is kept to a minimum. 

'Ensuring that our patients have the best possible experience while in our care remains our highest priority and we are proud to be working towards providing our patients with first-class, modern facilities.'

Services temporarily rehoused for the duration of the works are podiatry, family planning, CAMS (child adolescent mental health services), psychiatry, speech and language (children), Triangle Centre (cancer service), audiology (children) and opthalmology (children).

Patients booked to attend an appointment at the clinic have been advised of change of location while the works are carried out.

For further information contact Tavistock Clinic on 01822 615 935 or visit http://www.tsdhc.nhs.uk">www.tsdhc.nhs.uk