NEW NHS services are to come to Witney’s biggest health centre thanks to a £5.5m redevelopment.

The new building at the Welch Way centre will include west Oxfordshire’s only endoscopy unit, said senior practice partner Dr Paul Watson.

The procedure involves looking inside the body with a tiny camera to diagnose stomach and intestinal complaints. Patients currently have to travel to the John Radcliffe Hospital, in Oxford, for the service.

The new three-storey centre will also feature a podiatry service for the first time, for feet, ankle and lower leg problems.

It will be built on the centre’s current site, next to Witney Community Hospital, and will be more than three times the size of the present single-storey building.

The new centre will double the number of GP surgery rooms to 14, feature three treatment rooms, a minor operations suite and two rooms for taking blood.

Work will start on April 11 to build the centre to the back and side of the existing premises, to be kept open during the works.

Dr Watson said: “I feel delighted that it’s at last starting. I’m confident that it will be one of the best medical facilities in the area, if not the best.”

Dr Watson said the new building could cater for 16,000 patients – it currently has over 12,000 – and will have scope to take on more GPs.

He said: “The current premises are not really up to the standard that we would like for providing modern health care. I’m very pleased that the patients of Witney will soon have access to first-class facilities which they have been denied for so many years.”

Practice doctors have campaigned for new facilities since 2002. Dr Watson said plans were put on hold in 2007, because of uncertainty over NHS funding.

They have now obtained a mortgage for the site and will get rent from NHS Oxfordshire. GPs are not directly employed by the NHS but work as independent contractors.

Catherine Mountford, NHS Oxfordshire’s director of strategy and quality, said: “We’re really pleased to be able to seal the development agreement with the practice.”

Planning permission was given by West Oxfordshire District Council in April last year. The project is due to be completed in 12 months.

Cheltenham firm Beam Construction will carry out the work.

Managing director Steve Ratcliffe said: “We are excited about the project but it will be challenging.

“The challenge will be building it around the existing surgery and existing hospital and trying to minimise disruption.”