News / DITT win Scalloway health centre contract
A £1.5 million contract to convert Scalloway primary school into a health centre and move the children to the village’s empty secondary school has been awarded to local firm DITT Construction Ltd.
Work will start over the next month on external works to improve traffic access and create playgrounds and refurbishing the secondary school to make it ready to take the primary pupils.
Once this first phase is completed and the children have moved premises, work will start on turning the primary school into a health centre by next summer.
The new health centre will have seven consulting rooms and all the required support facilities to keep medical records, house office staff and provide space for community nurses and health visitors.
The development has been made possible by a major cash injection from the Scottish government following a request for extra capital from NHS Shetland, who are funding the work.
The NHS has been looking at ways of replacing its old and cramped health centre in Scalloway for many years, while the SIC has been examining alternatives for the secondary department it closed three years ago.
A previous plan to incorporate it into a major housing development at Utnabrake north of Scalloway fell when planning permission for the 21 house scheme was refused by the SIC in 2010.
NHS Shetland and SIC chief executives Ralph Roberts and Mark Boden heralded the agreement as a good example of the two organisations working together.
In a joint statement they said: “We have been working hard to produce a new health centre for the Scalloway community, and we are very pleased that the scheme is now progressing.
“At the same time, this will improve facilities for primary pupils in the area.”
The legal arrangement will leave the SIC owning the buildings, while NHS Shetland will carry out the detailed project management.
Part of the external works will assist Shetland Recreational Trust install a biomass boiler in the Scalloway swimming pool.
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