WORK has begun on Aintree Hospital’s £40m elective care centre.

Preparations for the four storey building, which is expected to be completed by 2010, began last week, with workmen beginning the demolition of old lab buildings on the hospital site to make way for the new build.

The construction is being undertaken by Warrington-based company Norwest Holst and will see the new centre replace outdated clinics and surgeries at Walton Hospital, as well as four brand new operating theatres, two major treatment rooms and a radiology department.

The elective care centre building will be connected by a bridge corridor to an improved Aintree University Hospital, after a further £3m is spent on improving the existing facilities.

The centre will be linked to the main hospital by a bridge corridor and will provide outpatients with clinics and a daycase surgery. As part of the new outpatients facilities, the centre will host a dedicated breast clinic and radiology department, offering ultrasound and mammography, as well as X-Ray facilities.