A NEW £13.5million hospital serving patients from Eltham and Greenwich has been given the green light.

Eltham Community Hospital, a 4,200 square metre facility, is expected to be built in Passey Place by December with services moving in from the start of 2015.

GP practices Eltham Palace Surgery and Eltham Medical Practice, which alone serve 16,000 patients, will move to the site as well as community services such as mental health, physiotherapy and paediatric.

Contracts have now been signed for the hospital which is being developed under a Public Private Partnership programme called Local Improvement Finance Trust (LIFT).

Speaking about the development, Dr Dermot Kenny, from Eltham Medical Practice, said: “We are delighted to be moving our practice into the new Community Hospital.

“We are sad to be leaving Court Yard after over fifty years but the opportunity was too good to miss.

“This development is the most significant in the South of the borough for many years and will be to the benefit of all residents of Eltham.”

The hospital will have the capacity to treat around 32,000 people per year as well as a minor surgery suite to deliver up to 1,500 procedures per year.

It will also give health professionals access to equipment including ECG, non-obstetric ultrasound, echocardiogram and X-Ray.

Chair of NHS Greenwich Clinical Commissioning Group and local GP Hany Wahba, said: “We are delighted that this project is going ahead to provide excellent new healthcare services for local people in Greenwich.

“This new community hospital has been developed as a coordinated care service to integrate GPs, district nurses and social care.

"This will benefit patients by bringing health and social care together in one place for easy access.

“This will be especially beneficial for those with complex needs and long term conditions as services will be working together to help patients and carers to learn about self-management at home.”