A £13.5M project to overhaul a dilapidated health centre has moved a step closer to completion.

The Waldron Health Centre, Stanley Street, New Cross, is currently undergoing a two-phase redevelopment programme.

Today, construction workers and staff from Lewisham Primary Care Trust (PCT) will hold a ceremony to celebrate the completion of the new main structure.

Still in need of work internally, the four-storey building will be completed in May and then workers will begin demolishing and rebuilding the older unit in time for summer 2008.

Once finished, the centre will provide a one-stop-shop for a range of community facilities, including four GP practices.

It will also home health visitors, district nurses, sexual health services, chiropodists, speech and language therapists, physiotherapists, dentists and midwives.

Lewisham PCT chairman Brian Lymbery said: "This building will provide facilities for our staff and patients that are truly fit for 21st century healthcare services."

Building work is being carried out in two phases so the existing health centre can remain operational.

The redevelopment has been made possible under a nationwide NHS initiative called the Local Improvement Finance Trust (Lift).

Lewisham PCT is working with private firm Building Better Health, which also works with Lambeth and Southwark PCTs, in delivering the Lift initiative.

At today's ceremony, wine, salt, oil and corn will be sprinkled on the structure as a traditional good luck gesture.

The building was design by Buschow Henley Architects and is being built by Willmott Dixon Construction.

Its managing director, Mike Hart, said: "The ceremony is important as it celebrates the structural completion of the building and points to the end being in sight."