A NEWPORT medical centre is celebrating its £265,000 expansion, in what it hopes will be the first step on the road to creating a "health village" in the area.

The expansion and renovation at St Brides Medical centre in Duffryn will allow the surgery to take on three new doctors and cater for about 1,000 extra patients, taking the total capacity of the centre to around 5,000 patients.

Work began in February of this year and was completed last week after senior partner in the practice, Drs Jasbir Mahapatra and Rabindra Mahapatra saved up £200,000 of their own money, paired with £65,000 provided by other practice partner, to help the expansion take place.

Dr Mahapatra, said: "I am extremely proud to see the work finished. It is a very nice feeling."

The numerous improvements include better parking facilities for patients and staff, a phlebotomy room (a blood test room) as well as a much bigger treatment room which can accommodate more minor surgeries, a dedicated records room, and two extra consulting rooms. And the work is just the beginning for the ambitious surgery, which is already a teaching practice for third year medical students from Cardiff University, as it hopes the new facilities like the new teaching room will allow them to take on fifth year medical students in the coming year too.

The next step for St Brides is to make a further expansion to accommodate a dentist, optometrist and chiropodist among others.

Dr Mahapatra, said: "We have a dream of creating a health village with lots of different care options in one place so that patients can be referred straight away.

With the increased capacity we also look forward to collaborating more closely with the community link as well as with Public Health Wales and other local committees in providing greater healthcare in this area."

The centre will have its official opening of the expansion, which will be attended by Rosemary Butler AM on Wednesday.