Health chiefs have unveiled their vision of a £4.2 million 'superclinic' to be built in Little Horton.

Building work could start as early as July on the new health centre at Horton Park Avenue which would be a flagship facility for Bradford.

Bosses at the Bradford Community NHS Trust - which provides 'community' services such as mental health and dentistry for patients - are in the process of thrashing out a deal with a private contractor who will stump up the money for the new centre.

The trust would then lease it back over a number of years in a deal struck under the private finance initiative.

Planning permission for the three-story building, with 150 car parking spaces, has been granted, and health chiefs are now simply waiting to finalise the deal with their private sector partner, an unnamed local contractor. It also needs final approval from the Yorkshire and Northern Regional Health Authority.

David Smith, property director for the trust, said the centre would be a flagship for primary care in the city.

It will provide a new home for two local GP practices - Dr Gaguine and Partners of Little Horton Lane and Dr Mughal and Partners of Great Horton Road.

It will also house a number of services currently offered at the Edmund Street and Saint Street medical centres (which would both close): chiropody, dentistry, physiotherapy, speech therapy, family planning and infant welfare.

Wheelchair services will be moved to the new centre from the current premises at Leeds Road Hospital and district nurses, health visitors, community psychiatric nurses and midwives would also be based at the centre which would become a 'one stop shop' for community health services.

Accommodating GP surgeries under one roof with district nurses and related services will also benefit team working, Mr Smith said.

If health chiefs succeed in striking a deal in the next few weeks, it will bring to fruition four years' worth of planning.

The 'superclinic' plan has been on the drawing board for years and the trust believed it was close to a deal two years ago. The Telegraph & Argus reported in February 1996 that building work on the centre would be completed "by Christmas 1997".

However delays in selling off the Westwood Hospital site, and then changes to the rules governing the private finance initiative, combined to scupper that scheme, and the trust had to go back to square one with a new developer.

If work does start in July, it is programmed to take 12 months.

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