A HOSPITAL, eleven years in the planning, has finally opened its doors.

CommuniCare NHS trust chairman Sheila Maw, who officially opened the Longridge Community Hospital building, said it was an emotional moment for her, after such a long build-up.

She told hundreds of local dignitaries, health bosses, Ribble Valley MP Nigel Evans and staff at the opening: "This is a very emotional moment for me and my colleagues. As you can see I have brought my tissues. We have waited a long time for this excellent facility."

The £2.3million community hospital and health centre, in St Wilfred's Terrace, replaces the Ribchester Community Hospital and Longridge Health Centre.

Mrs Maw said the project had paid for itself, as the income expected from the sale of the King Street clinic, Longridge, and Ribchester Hospital was more than the capital cost of the new building.

The new building has an in-patient ward of 15 beds and improved physiotherapy and occupational therapy accommodation within an integrated rehabilitation unit.

It also has clinic facilities on the ground floor and in-patient wards will be on the first floor.

Plans to build the new hospital were hatched in 1990 after it was decided by the Government that Ribchester Community Hospital would close subject to alternative services being provided locally. The running of the hospital will eventually be handed over from CommuniCare to the proposed Preston Primary Care Trust, although a date has not been set.

Mrs Maw said: "I am often asked whether we as a trust are sad at the prospect of losing the hospital to Preston. My answer is very simple...of course we are not sad.

"The hospital was built expressly for the benefit of the people of Longridge and Ribchester, not for CommuniCare NHS trust. In future the interests of those same people will be serviced by the proposed PCT.

"My only plea is that they ensure that the facility remains faithful to the principles and values which prompted its creation and that is to serve the people of its locality in a wide variety of ways."