OFFICIALS cut the first sod on the site of a new £2m health centre on the Queensgate campus at Huddersfield University.

The health centre will be built on the banks of the canal by Trinity Medical Properties Ltd.

The centre has been approved by the South Huddersfield Primary Care Trust.

Trust officials have worked with the company, doctors and staff at the existing centre, to help make the new facility one of the finest in the area.

The new building will provide fully-fitted clinics and administrative accommodation, including spacious consulting rooms, large treatment rooms for use by nurses and a minor operations suite.

Accommodation will also be provided for health visitors, specialist nursing teams and visiting consultants.

Facilities for the training of new doctors will be provided, including seminar and health education rooms.

John Chilton, chairman of the South Huddersfield Primary Care Trust, said: "The university practice has outgrown the current health centre.

"A new state-of-the-art development will offer enormous health and social benefits to the student population."

It is hoped the new health centre will be open early next year.

The existing health centre, on the fifth floor of the university's Central Services Building, will be refurbished and will revert back to the university.

The development is part of a wider estates strategy for the improvement of primary care facilities and services across the South Huddersfield PCT.