THE New Memorial Centre at Okehampton Medical Centre is to open this weekend, providing extra facilities and services for patients.

The new building at the centre will house a new dispensary, waiting area, five consulting rooms and two treatment rooms. There will also be additional staff facilities, including a meeting room.

Alison Shelton, practice manager, said: 'The New Memorial Centre has been a long time coming and has been hard work for all concerned.

'Hopefully now we will have the necessary space to accommodate the increasing medical needs of the expanding population.'

The building stands on the site of the old memorial hospital, opposite the existing medical centre building. The centre's partners purchased the hospital building from the Primary Care Trust after Okehampton Community Hospital opened in 2004.

Many options were considered to redevelop the site, but it was eventually decided the most viable option was to construct a new building on the footprint of the previous hospital.

The old building was demolished in 2012 to make way for the new building.

An important aspect of the new building is to commemorate the old hospital that stood on the site.

During the demolition of the old building, memorial stones and the lintel from above the main door were saved, with the intention to place them in a new memorial garden.

This includes a stone laid by the Lady Clinton on May 27, 1925, that lay hidden for the best part of a century before it was unearthed during the demolition process.

The centre is being opened on Saturday, November 9 by the former matron of the Okehampton District Memorial Hospital Eileen Davey, assisted by Mel Stride MP and Okehampton mayor Cllr the Rev Mike Davies.

The opening takes place at 2pm, and all are welcome to attend.